I winter-sow in Northern Nevada. I don't use a greenhouse--just shelves under the roof eaves or two big Sterilite containers with sand dumped in the bottom.

It works just fine for me.

This is very good to know Ljrmiller. So often, by the time we are thinking about some of those quick vegetable varieties, space has been entirely used up with the things that take longer in the greenhouses.

And, for folks without greenhouses, Winter Sowing could be a godsend. I heard about the process a couple of years ago and tried to think how I might make use of it . . . herbs, delphiniums . . . We'll I've got plenty of room and opportunity if I want to start those in March. And, I do.

Later in the Spring, I've not only got plants on the benches and shelves but they are UNDER the benches on the floor. My old approach of transplanting out of a hoop house didn't work this year with less April sunlight and a decision to plant more varieties under cover. Just left everything right where they were and am now enjoying lots of stir-fry and salad greens. Direct seeded into the garden when that time rolled around. Then it got HOT. I'm thinking that there will not only be a "gap" in production but, outdoors, most things will be small right up until they bolt to seed.

I should say that while I'm an experienced greenhouse grower, my attempts at using cold frames have been an abysmal failure. I just can't be sufficiently attentive. Cooling the greenhouses is mostly passive but I've got so much more air volume to work with. It never really occurred to me that going for very little volume and easy ventilation might work better than cold frames.

The discussion on Colorado on the Winter Sowing forum - didn't look entirely promising. I'm in the Selkirks of WA State but I'd think CO would be a real challenge for WS - bright and cold. So I remain a little unconvinced until I can try next year.

Are there any zone 5 and colder Winter Sowers in our neck of the woods?

Steve

I tried winter sowing for the forst time this year. Started putting styrofoam cups out in a plasctic storage bin in early Feb. On warmer days I kept the bins in the shade. When I noticed plants coming up, I made sure I moved the bins next to the house if it got really really cold. I had about a 60% success rate. All were traded seeds too so maybe not all were viable. I will do it again next year!

I did WS for the first time this year also. Started out with 12 gal milk jugs seeded with different varieties of seeds - vegetable, annuals, and perennials.
Nine out of the 12 have germinated seeds, some as early as March and some just last week. Have not planted them out yet so can't report on any thing else. I don't have a greenhouse and it seems to be a great way to get lots of plants for cheap. The jugs have been just sitting under a couple of conifers in my back yard with no special attention. The verdict is still out with the success up here in Montana, but it is fun trying!
Suz

"Fun trying," Suz and "will do it again," Tucker . . . those look like positive endorsements to me!

S

Gads been along time since I was in here,,
Wintersowing in montana works fantastically, gads I feel so old when I go into this ,,back in the old days before the rocky mountain garden forum or the winter sowing forum we used to sit around and chat about what we did have good luck getting going allowing mother nature to run the seed through the process to get it up and going,, I have lived in montana basically all my life and my grandmother used to winter sow alot of her flowers as well as the occasional vege, she also ran several cold frames as well
Back in my greenhouse days I used winter sowing on some of the flowers especially the mt natives and others who needed a bit of the stratification process,,
good luck with your trials,hmmmm
GB
AKA
JWJ

hi steve i WS last year for the first time and had great success. i did both flowers and veg. since we had a mild spring i can't say it will happen every year but i had 80+% success and most of the failures were because i didn't have enough soil in jugs to stay moist. i'd say the hardest part was to be sure they didn't get too dry in our climate. i did have to water alot as the weather got warmer but still had a few sprouts petrify after sprouting. it's so much fun to be playing in the dirt in feb when i'm dying to grow something. sandy

I'm not sure if this qualifies as winter sowing or not, but I have great luck with bread seed poppies, delphiniums and penstemons by just planting the seeds in flats about Feb or March and leaving them on my back porch, out of the direct sun until they germinate.
I also have fantastic luck with cold frames, but I have a couple of those automatic, oil filled vent openers on the lids. Because the frames are partially sunk into the ground and well insulated, I never have to heat them and it's gotten down to 18 F outside without the plants freezing.

Maybe someday I'll have a greenhouse, sigh...

Since Colorado gardening and cold winters in general are new to me, today I decided to see what I could get away with and planted spinach, radishes, carrots, & lettuce in a raised bed.

I bought a thick frost blanket at Tagawa (they told me it was thicker than an average frost blanket for a few more degrees of warmth) with pins to fasten on the ground beneath the raised bed. I haven't put it on yet. It's been so warm during the day lately & even nights have been warm. Although, here in Castle Rock, nights are in the 40's this week & down into upper 30's by Sunday. If they sprout then I will cover the frost blanket with plastic too.

Also, I read that you can plant cosmos, calif. poppies, & various wildflowers now. I bought some seed this past weekend; do I cover the seed with mulch or just leave a thin layer of soil like I would in warmer weather?

I'm going to try cnetter's version of setting some flats out on the back porch in Feb. or March. I'd like to experiment & see what I can get away with less work as I didn't have time to build a cold frame this year.

Thanks for the info, as always :)

I turned over a bed in the veggie garden about 10 days ago. Yesterday, I noted that the chickweed seed has sprouted on the surface. (Weeds are so very useful! :o)

I got it a little backward - working in a commercial greenhouse back around 1980. Then, I began to try to gain the advantage recognized there in my own operation. My little veggie garden probably looked somewhat silly outside a corner of all those glass structures but, you know, a person has to have some diversion after a day of work.

It seems that WS is just a variation on any protected growing. As noted above, cold frames and I just aren't a good match and going smaller worries me. I began using "cookie boxes" to start seed in on top the fridge years ago but it never occurred to me to put the box outside. . . The top is cut off as soon as the box moves either to a south window or directly into the greenhouse. I think I'll try some herbs in boxes set out in the yard here after the snow starts to melt. Or, maybe a gallon plastic jug with the bottom cut off pressed into an outdoor bed. I know those things work well as hotcaps. Maybe just a little hole early and then take the cap off in March.

For the flowers you've named, Charlene - a little soil covering should be all the seeds need to get them thru the winter. We had sufficient cosmos volunteers from the yard to transplant to nearly 200 square feet in the flower garden this year. Too many, but you can see how this sort of thing gets started. Just hide a few plants in the roses or behind some taller, late bloomers like sunflowers and you've got all the spring Cosmos seedlings you'll care to find a home for.

CA poppies - there are some fond memories from my childhood in southern Oregon associated with them. However, I seem to now be too much on their northern boundary for ease of growing. They don't seem to like any disturbance but even so, their numbers decrease each year. I have a hard time getting much joy from them showing up with a few weeds between pavers while they disappear everywhere else. Shucks.

Steve

Thanks Steve, I'm saving my plastic gallon jugs in case I get ambitious come early spring.

I may be hitting you up when the time comes for your indoor seed starting wisdom as I've never done so myself :)

CA poppies are hugely nostalgiac for me also. In Calif. bright bands of orange can be seen all over the foothills in early winter. Sorry you don't have much luck with them. We'll see how they do here.....

Charlene