>> don't even need to fight the grass trying to grow there.. it just doesn't ...
>> so hard I couldn't even get a shovel in there..
sounds like my clay before I remove it ahnd mix it with 50-75% other stuff. Not even dandilions grow on some of my clay! But two intrepid clover seeds managed to force their way intto it, and produced a big "clover bush" last spring.
>> drainage is very important for WS'ing
I believe it, especially where I have constant rain. That made me try to avoid slits in the covers.
I used to lose 90-99% of seedlings to slugs until I invested in cheap beer and slug bait. That made me fear putting the tubs out on the deck after I drilled drainage holes - I knew the slugs could squeeze into holes. I even tried to keep them away from slugs by keeping them up on a raised proch where rain could wash away the slug biat. But neither did they get sun or fully cold.
I think I need a rain cover so I can ventilate freely, and to keep the rain off the slug bait. That makes me think that I'm really trying to create a seed bed in a cold frame.
BTW, I need so few of each variety, and wnat so many varieties, that my basic WS unit is a square 3.5" pot. I pack many (24?) into each large plastic bin, maybe 16" , 32". I've been using thick milky plastic film with slits as a cover.
I forget if I mentioned here that the 0% success rate with most plants was reversed when I gave up on them and went to throw the soil into an B. Several of the fussy Penstemeon pots had "green perlite", it seemed. Squinting hard, i relaized they were TINY seedlings. 3-4 months later, they are still 1/4" high, maybe 3/8" high if they stand on tip-toe.
After such total failure, one of the hardest things to start that I've tired came thoguh rather well: maybe half the P. varieties germinated, and those that did, had a very high germination rate! Just slower than glaciers.
