prowicz winter sowing pages

laura is pretty sure that winter sowing is her new main hobby, an offshoot of gardening. winter sowing. there are so many different facets of fun that it's hard to quantify them all :-)

first there is the choosing and dreaming of the flowers that the seed may bring. then there is the fun of deciding on which to purchase. next comes the actual purchasing and receiving of the seed. then, finally, the culmination of the process with the sowing of the seeds into the chosen receptacle and getting it outside *where it belongs*

what is "winter sowing", you ask? it's a technique for starting plants from seed and it's so easy, you could call it the lazy gardener's method. instead of purchasing special equipment, lights, shelves, potting medium, etc. etc. just save chinese takeout containers and frozen food trays. in january or so, put the cheapest potting soil you can find into the containers after splitting the bottoms for drainage. take your native plant seeds and sprinkle them on top. slit the tops of the containers or make slits in the ziploc baggy and cover the container. put the seeds outside in the weather and don't do a darn thing for three months. after three months, go outside and suddenly there are plants! :-)

first blooms of april 2003	first blooms of april 2003
the plants above are not winter sowing plants. I was just so excited to finally see an actual bloom or two in early april and I had to snap a couple of pictures. one is an impatiens that my son gave me for mother's day last year that has made it through the winter and started blooming all of a sudden in april. the other plants are trilliums that I purchased online, which I expected to arrive as bulbs but showed up bareroot and blooming. I will put them into the garden once the nighttimes start warming up.
here are the winter sowing flats. we started in mid-january filling cheapo chinese take out containers and frozen food trays with pesche's potting soil and wetting them very well. then, sowing the seed in them and marking them with mini-blinds and sharpy pens. we put them outside. we left them there. we did not touch them or check them or water them or anything else. here is what they looked like all winter on the north side of our house (most of the time they were covered in snow and frozen solid.)
flats april 1 2003	flats april 1 2003
you know the flats are moist enough when you see condenstation on the lids. no condensation means either water the flats or the slits in the lids are too large (very scientific.) when it gets really warm outside open the vents in the lids or take the lids off. apparently the only thing to be careful of is making sure you don't accidentally fry your plants inside their little greenhouses. by april 5th the only thing I had done was check the flats to find that some of them (most actually) had two-leaved seedlings inside. I hadn't even watered them once since setting them outside in january, the melting snow had done it for me.
flats april 5 2003	flats april 5 2003
most native plants have to go through a period of cold, like winter, in order to break the seed's dormancy and germinate. putting the seeds outside during the really cold winter months does this very effectively and simply. the seeds germinate when the time is right and they are much more robust and hardy than plants started indoors in an artificial environment. for plants that do not need a cold period, I sowed them exactly the same and put them outside starting in early april to give them a few weeks head start before going into the garden.
last snowstorm april 7 2003	this was an amazing transformation. the flats had been through warm and cold and three inches of snow...
winter sowing flats april 20 2003	...and viola! plants! :-) winter sowing - "gardening for the lazy gardener" - (I just really have better things to do than to babysit seedlings all winter!)
winter sowing flats april 20 2003	winter sowing flats april 20 2003
even joe-pye weed, which I have read is notoriously hard to start from seed, germinated without any trouble and is healthy and robust.
winter sowing flats april 20 2003	winter sowing flats april 20 2003
winter sowing flats april 20 2003	the anise hyssop were the first to take off and are the most vigorous of the crew.
here are the flats again on may 9th. the seedlings are doing great. I still keep them covered at night but when it's over 60 degrees F during the day, I leave them uncovered.
winter sowing flats may 9 2003	winter sowing flats may 9 2003
for more about winter sowing, see the gardenweb winter sowing forum.

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