With difficult seed bed conditions it is a good to remind sowers of small seeds of the need to obtain a FINE and FIRM seed bed prior to sowing. Robin Hill, chairman at Cotswold Seeds always says that you should be able to ride a bicycle over a grass/clover seedbed before sowing! Jokes aside there is a serious point to this. Good, close contact with soil particles enables seeds to absorb soil moisture and this leads to quicker and better germination. It also leaves less room for slug activity, an added bonus in a wet year like 2012.