Start Your Gardening

. . even when there is still snow on the ground!

I’ve been fascinated by the idea of “Winter Sowing” since I read about it over a year ago. The premise is simple. You take seeds and plant them in little “greenhouses” made from milk jugs etc. Then you place them outside and let them freeze and thaw with the weather. Once it starts to get warm, your “greenhouse” heats up sooner than the ground, and the plants sprout. As time goes on you can punch additional holes in the top (effectively “hardening off” your seedlings) and come planting time you should have plenty of healthy seedlings that have grown for you without much work. This practice is supposed to work with seeds that “self sow”, need striation (a period of freezing prior to germination) or include directions to “nick” the seed before planting.

(If you want to read the full explanation, read the “How to Winter Sow” FAQ article in the Wintersowing Forum on Gardenweb.com)

Last year by the time we moved it was already the beginning of April, so I really didn’t get a chance to try this method. This year I really meant to begin in January. I had saved milk jugs and vinegar jugs all winter, bought my seeds, and even picked up the potting soil. Then I sort of stalled. Between kids, visitors, the play and visiting Dallas—well, it just didn’t happen until last Friday.

So here is what I did. I picked out some seeds that should do ok in my area. This sowing I concentrated on Petunias (which I want to do in a mass planting in the front beds after the daffodils and tulips die) and both purple and white Alyssum (which can border the beds)

I took the jugs and cut them open around their “waist” about 2 inches up or so. Next time I might try 3 to give a little more root room. Then I washed them with soap and water and dried them all. After they were dry I used a small knife and made some drainage holes in the bottom. In the milk jugs these wound up to be slashes, but the thicker vinegar jugs I could kind of carve out circular holes.

I filled all the little greenhouses up with soil, then set them on trays outside the sink and used my sprayer attachment to very thoroughly wet the soil. I actually did a wetting, then waited a few minutes, then wet some more etc. Finally I let the entire thing sit for about ½ hour to let the water soak in.

Next I just sort of broadcast sowed the seeds across the top. Just plain old scattered them. Both of the seeds said to cover with between 1/8 and 1/16 of an inch of soil, so I just sort of pressed them down into the soil with my hands.

Then I took duct tape cut in half length-wise and taped them closed. I wrote the name and the date on the duct tape so I would know what they were later. Then they all got set out on the porch. Right now they are all huddled together due to the high winds we are having (only I would finally decide to do this on the day we have a windstorm). I will space them out a little and place them so they are in the sun later.

I sowed these pretty heavily, so once they sprout and get their first true leaves I’ll have to prick them out and transplant them into some of the 6 pack cell things that I saved from the flowers I bought last year. Once I do that I will place them in my little mini shelf style greenhouse (which I unfrugally impulse bought at Lowe’s about 3 months ago for $40-which was a bargain price, the question was did I really need it!). That should keep them warm enough until after Memorial Day (anything that says “wait until after all danger of frost is past” has to wait until after Memorial Day here).

So far the cost for all this is:
Potting Soil $8
Seeds $3
Milk Jugs etc FREE/RECYCLED
Duct Tape FREE
Cell Containers FREE/RECYCLED
Mini Shelf Style Greenhouse $40

Even with the cost of the greenhouse added in I will still save money on flowers this year over buying them if this works. If not, well, I guess I learned something.

I am also planning on trying to start some of my garden plants indoors with a fluorescent light, so the greenhouse will help with hardening off those plants.