One is tempted to think the plants do this sort of thing deliberately, to both keep us on our toes and show us that we're not as clever as we might like to think!
From the behaviour of many in plants in our garden, primula, allium, meconopsis, for instance, you'd have to draw the conclusion that there is no better seed bed and growing position than a gravel path, or the space between the glasshouse glass and edging -and lets not mention the success from seeding in the glasshouse sand plunge !

In calmer moments we do think ourselves lucky that they're growing at all!!

The rest of the time it's just pure frustration.

PS - if you'd like to send a seedling of the Satureja up here, I'd be happy to report on its habits in the North East!!!