I mostly scatter seed. Mostly because I work a lot but really want to keep a big garden. I have found a few tricks because of this. I like to scatter carrots,dill, beets, arugula, turnips, radish, lettuce and other things that do well close together. I may just water or but a layer of good compost on top and pat it down a bit. I have found that I get a better result scattering then putting each individual seed in the ground because I have time to plant more seed this way. After things start to come up in the spring I fill in bare spots with things that I have started indoors like my cabbages. Also I had this idea one year to mulch my garden with leaves in the fall to see how it worked out. The slugs where horrible the next spring but I had pulled up potatoes that fall I left the inedible one on the ground. I had a little crop of red potatoes the following spring. It was wonderful. I have sense read about some famous gardener doing this with straw. She would lay her seed potato out in the fall with a good layer of straw over top and the starts would come up in the spring. I know there are a few good things about scattering seed that I have taken inspiration from gaia's garden about polyculture beds.
