I haven't done any winter sowing yet. I am anxious to try it. I'm just not sure where to start. I thought about the South side of the house. I have a good size over hang. I just need more info on the subject.

I plan to do it again with delphiniums, and probably some others, but I haven't really put any thought into it yet. I discovered last year that I started too soon (Dec.) and couldn't wait for results, so brought the containers inside. They did fine mostly.

I'm making a link to the FAQ page of the Winter Sowing Forum. It should have enough info to get you started.

Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Sowing Forum FAQ page

In the past had direct seeded hollyhocks, and peony poppies. Then had to move them to where I wanted them. And I have many containers now that i put out under plum tree. I do mulch slghtly. So wind doesn't blow soil out of pots-or birds help them selfs to winter snack. Some the seeds I have need 8-10 weeks of freezing temps Like the KMOGG. Since because of the snow i'm not working today. And might not in the am. So will check to see if i have peat pots left.

Thank You Koszta. I'm going to really study this. My Hubby started talking about setting something up under the picture window. It is on the south side of the house. I live in the country so It won't distract the neighbors. LOL
I'm really lucky that he takes interest in my projects. He doesn't garden, but he always tries to make it easier for me. I would really like to see Belly right on this subject. I could add it to my print outs.( HINT HINT)

On Wintering sowing section. Can find out about any ?? on witer sowing. I figure if Mother Nature can plant seeds in the fall and they come up in the spring so can I. Was looking at Johnny seed catalog last night. Have ordered many times from they. Going to get foxglove,and lupines. Ask then to send them right away. Now I got make a new trade list again. Have traded 3 years .

I did a print out on the info I got at Winter Sowing here in Garden web. I ordered more seed today also. I'm just busting at the seams to put out my first jugs. We have about 3 ft snow drifts right now.

My only problem with winter sowing was that pretty much everything I sowed germinated and grew. I wasn't expecting such a good turn out so I had to scramble to find spaces to plant stuff in. It didn't seem to matter what I winter sowed it came up. It was fun, and it was easy and I'm probably going to do it again. :) Winter sowing was the first time I've ever been able to get Oriental Poppy to germinate and grow from seed. I'll probably do a lot more poppy this year.

Diann
IA Z5a

My best luck is right in the ground, not little milk jugs. If you forget a milk jug and it thaws out it will soon dry out. In the ground it is better able to fin for inself. I like planting things, then putting the containers out in my (potting shed). It's really an old garage with no heat. So they stay frozen until I decide to hang my lights and get in gear. They will usually germinate a couple of weeks sooner than those in the ground.

Ialso have some in garage. I put them in peat pots and got in old cooler. Mostly if mice get in garage wouldn't chew on the pots. I water just little. Getting lights ready. Got nice heated breezeway how. And my old kitchen table++++ lots of other thinks. Dh hinting for me to sort through my treasures. Mostly things that go back up in the flower beds.

Sanfan asked for my comments on this topic. I have to say that my opinion is a mixture of all the above. However, my winter sowing technique seems to mirror Jamlover's. I prefer to just sow the seeds in ground and let them sit there through the winter.

I thoroughly agree with the concept and I loved Diann's comment, "It didn't seem to matter what I winter sowed it came up. It was fun, and it was easy." Although I endorse the concept which I have practiced for years before it became a movement, including a forum of its own; I have misgivings about the monster it has become. It never ceases to amaze me at how something so simple as placing a seed in the soil and waiting for it to germinate came to be so complicated. Now we have entire procedures and gather countless containers and in general, add a considerable amount of what I see as needless work.

I am not denigrating Trudi Davidoff. She is the driving force behind this new "movement". She has certainly been able to garner many converts and has offered an avenue of enlightenment for many. However, I was around these forums when she was first starting to preach her gospel. From the onset, I always got the impression that she was just another east coast, city-slicker girl who had suddenly discovered that milk did not really come from bottles after all. Having grown up on the farm and essentially gardening all my life, for years I had pretty much taken for granted her "marvelous new discovery". Of course, I also always knew that milk came from cows, not bottles.

I join Trudy in a never-ending fascination with the miracle of germinating seeds. To this day, the wonders of that event marvelously overwhelm my thought processes. However, I do not join any movement that creates needless effort. I always refer back to the two most common mistakes made by gardeners:
1) They make gardening too complicated.
2) They make gardening too much work.

I just sow my seeds in protected areas of my garden where I can label and find them later after they have sprouted. I simply dig and transplant the ones I need into pots or directly into the ground. A few seeds that I want to later bring indoors for an earlier start, I will sow into plug flats which are then sunk into those same protected areas of my garden. When it is time, I bring them inside. However, let me hasten to add that this is darn few flats that are brought inside. Most of the time, seeds sown outside as described above, produce plants that outperform the tender, leggy plants raised inside which are ill-equipped to handle the outside elements.

In short, I simplify whenever I can. Plants have been going through the cycle of life all by themselves for many years without needing a human to coddle them. I suspect that they will continue to do so long after I am gone. If you truly enjoy playing "mother hen", I have no problem with that. Each of us is certainly entitled to participate in whatever aspect of gardening turns you on -- and there are many aspects to choose from.

Part of the fun of gardening is going through the various phases that we all seem to participate in during our garden journey of life. Gardening is a disease -- we can't help ourselves. What turns us on today will probably be passnext year. Like I tell my wife, "It keeps me out of the bars and the only thing I am hurting is occasionally my foolish pride."

IronBelly

For winter sowing I didn't like milk jugs. Seemed to me that they were more of a pain than anything else. I much prefered the cheap little flats you can get at Menards, Lowe's, or Homey Depot. Yeah, I know I'm supposed to be scouring the dumpsters looking for things to plant in to make it cost effective. I just don't do dumpster-diving. So, I may spend $10 or $15 bucks on dirt and those funky little flats, but it works for me. What ever I invest in seeds and flats it's still way cheaper than what I would have spent in a greenhouse.

I thought about direct sowing, but I really never know where I want something at the moment I should be sowing the seed for it, so sowing in flats works best for me.

I've got some seeds ordered from Burpee and with any luck they will be here by the end of the month. Then let the winter-sowing begin. I will not be doing anywhere near the amount of flats this year that I did last year (I think), I just don't have the time to tear up new turf to plant it all...

Most of the stuff I'm sowing this year will go down front where I'm tearing out a hosta bed that got too much sun (and thus, not enough water and the hosta sunburned). Oh well, gardening is about change and not being static, right? :)

Diann
IA Z5a

Guess I have been wintering sowing for over 50+ years. Sister and I would plant Hollyhocks all around my Grandfather's 10 acres in Holstein Iowa. Back then they considered them WEEDS. So every Spring He would look at us and say " See you girls been busy"

You really made me chuckle, Koszta Kid. As I was writting my response above, hollyhocks were one of the very things I was thinking about. And yes, that is "winter sowing", except that we never needed a name for it. We also didn't have to attend a class at Hofstra University. (They really do have a class on winter sowing.)

Pretty simple -- In fact, it was child's play.

Thanks for the smile.

IronBelly

I will be doing it again this year. The thing that I like about it is that it is something to do in the middle of the winter. In the fall, I am busy cleaning up the garden.

We also didn't have to attend a class at Hofstra University. (They really do have a class on winter sowing.)

I teach continuing ed at their University...that's my class! Hofstra is a five minute drive from here. They liked my course proposals so well they frequently put the proposals, themselves, in their piecase. I overachieve ;-)

And I would like to repeat, I am not denigrating Trudi Davidoff. She has been not only a driving force behind enlightening a lot people to an easy method of seed starting but she has also been a welcome and dedicated participant on these forums for a long time.

In rereading my earlier comments, I could have (and probably should have) stated them a bit better. Although a number of us who spent a lot of time growing up on farms may wonder what the big deal is about, most people visiting these many forums have not had that depth of experience available to them. Whatever it takes to help one garden better, I am all for it. Trudi has a lot to offer to a lot of people. For that reason, I commend her efforts.

IronBelly

Thank you...you are a good soul and I have always cared about what you've written as you have so much to share. Though maybe late to offer, it is still heartfelt ~

Celebrate the Growing Light ~ Solstice Greetings.

Trudi

I think the main reason I winter sow is the $$$$. Got all these seeds I collected. And the ones i haven't given away I plant. I was soooo glad i had some seeds from my Grandmother red peony poppies seeds. They was so pretty,She gardened until she was 95. And passed away in April at 97. But you can trade or buy seeds in the fall. Sow them and have nice plants. Lot of my baby plants I give away. Or sell at out Koszta church bazaar. Or I collect the seeds and have pictures of the plants.