Winter (Nearly Spring) Sowing

This cheerful sunflower was from
our winter sowing experiment

 Just when you think you can't take one more day of winter in the northeast, there are activities that can provide you with a bit of optimism that spring is coming. Two years ago, Jim and I learned about winter sowing. It's a frugal way of starting seeds outdoors. You don't need to build an expensive greenhouse or pay inflated electric bills for the use of energy for grow lights. All you need are clean water or milk jugs, soil, and seeds.

This year, we've decided to give winter sowing another try. We're starting a bit later, so I guess we should call it early spring sowing. Last summer, we installed a wild flower pollinator garden. We hope to continue to add to this spot on our property and even have our thoughts on a medicinal and or tea garden.

Whether you want to get a jump start on your vegetable garden or add to your perennials or annuals, sowing seeds prior to the gardening season provides an opportunity to get your hands in the soil early. 

Search winter sowing, and you will find tons of web sites and articles offering advice and success stories. While, we have had some success using milk jugs, we are still learning. Our first year, we winter sowed an overwhelmingly long list of perennials and annuals, and imagined that they would all be transplanted to our garden beds on a warm spring day.  Not the case!

This was before we put our jugs into bins

Some seeds never sprouted, some barely sprouted and became leggy, some jugs were disturbed by the weather or in other cases, curious animals that were passing through. And then there were the jugs that had sprouted seeds but we had no idea what they were because our labels wore off!

So, if you're interested in giving winter (nearly spring) sowing a try, I wanted to share a few thoughts or lessons that we learned:

It's important to use the correct types of seeds. The best ones are cold hardy annuals, herbs and cold crop vegetables, or plants that are perennial in your zone. Check the seed packets for terms like "Self-sowing", "direct sow outside in the fall", direct sow outside in early spring" or "cold stratification".

Buy potting soil or seedling mix. Don't try to use dirt from the garden.

Place jugs or other containers in clear plastic bins or crates. It keeps them better organized but more importantly, helps to keep them from tipping over. Another bonus is that you can move the jugs to different locations more easily.

You should have at least 4" of soil in each container.

Here's a quick supply list to get you started:

1. Containers- We used milk jugs and cut them horizontally, leaving the handle side in tact to function as a hinge.
2. Scissors/Utility knife
3. Drill (for making drainage holes in bottom of container)
4. Potting soil
5. Seeds (see note above)
6. Duct Tape (used for closing jug and labeling)
7. Paint pen or permanent magic marker (Note: keep an eye on your labels during the season, as you may have to rewrite the fading permanent marker.)
8. Plant Tags (optional)- Popsicle sticks are always good for this.

Happy Growing!