Winter-sowing the seeds of summer beauty

Our focus on the garden begins in earnest in February...

the deadline for winter-sowing of perennial seeds,

Beardtongue Foxglove - winter-sown 2024

followed by indoor-sowing of short-season vegetable seeds like tomatoes and peppers.

I first learned about winter sowing 7 years ago - when harsh weather and flooding required that we re-landscape and essentially start over. Buying the number of flowering plants we would need to even get a good start on a perennial garden was clearly Not an option.

We had tried stratifying seeds in the fridge in the past - putting them on damp towels in plastic bags in the freezer or fridge - with underwhelming success. (Stratifying is essentially freezing or cooling the seeds for weeks, in order to fool them into believing they had already survived a winter and would be ready to grow and even bloom the first season.)

Winter-sowing uses the last few months of actual winter weather to accomplish the same purpose. We have had good success with it ever since... while modifying our methods and materials over time.

The traditional method is to use plastic milk jugs to create mini-greenhouses: cut them in half, leaving a small piece attached to form a hinge, cut holes in the bottom for drainage, leaving the top attached, fill with soil and seeds, and leave outside in the sun until warming temperatures prompt them to sprout. We used the same method except that we substituted translucent plastic juice bottles, which we continue to save.

This year, we switched to using only the bottom half of the juice bottles as pots, along with a few additional translucent containers. We could have used traditional small pots, but we already had a number of plastic bottles. Then we placed them in translucent plastic 'totes' with hinged lids that we found at a great price. No more jugs blowing over in a stiff wind - or being knocked over by marauding squirrels.

The basic steps:

Newly planted seed pots

I used an old soldering iron to create drainage holes in the bottom of each tote, and in the lids - to allow rain and snow to water the seeds/ seedlings

To create the 'pots', I cut the top half off each plastic bottle and discarded it. The bottom half became the soil and seed containers. The soldering iron was also used to cut 4-6 holes in the bottom of each container for drainage. Coffee filters were used to line the bottom of each container so that soil doesn't clog the drainage holes, then I filled them with soil - a mix of good potting soil, seed starting mix, and perlite.

After pressing the soil down lightly, I add 3-4 seeds to each container, and then top them off with about 1/4" of soil - depending on the size of the seeds. NOTE: I use popsicle sticks and a pencil to create plant labels in each container, since even extra-permanent markers have been known to bleach-out from the sun.

3 lg totes = 31 seed pots

The labelled seed pots are then watered and settled into the totes. Water from rain and melting snow seeps through the lid of each 'tote' to water the plants, and excess water drains out through the holes in the bottom. In this instance, we decided to settle them on top of our wooden patio planters since they won't be in use until late Spring.

Additional watering may be needed during a significant dry spell, but otherwise, it is essentially a maintenance-free process. And since the seedlings are outside during all weather conditions and exposed to sun, they don't require additional 'hardening-off' before they are transplanted to the garden.

Each seed pot will have at least 2 or 3 separate seedlings, which can be potted-up or planted-out separately. This makes an output of 100 or more individual plants from the 31 pots we planted this year. Plenty to fill-in bare spots and expand borders.

Here's the list of both purchased and gathered

seeds that we planted in the first round of winter sowing this year:

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In future blogs, we will share some of the details, such as our recipe for perennial garden soil, propagating from seed, creating a habitat for bees, butterflies and other beneficials, Tim's bonsai collection, Louie's garden art, and in general how we upcycle, re-use, and otherwise create beauty on a DIY budget.

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