Winter Sowing

It's that time of year again! Time to start getting your seeds going for the garden this summer. Last year was our second time with starting seeds, and it was quite successful considering we didn't have a grow light system, didn't have much space, and lots of our seeds were quite old. It was super rewarding to plant seedlings in the garden that we grew ourselves instead of just going out and buying them.

This year, the space thing is still an issue and to be quite honest I'm just feeling plain lazy when I think about trying to make a space to start seeds indoors. Sooooo...we are attempting something called Winter Sowing. I tried this one year when we lived in Oregon, but started too late so it wasn't as successful as it could have been. Since we are in a much colder climate out here in Colorado, March is still a fine time to attempt this experiment.

So what is Winter Sowing you ask? Well, in a nutshell it is basically starting your seeds outside, in the Winter. Using recycled containers (think milk jugs, yogurt containers, etc.), seeds are sown and left to outside to germinate naturally. With the freezing and thawing that happen to the soil in the containers in the Winter, this helps prep the seeds for germination. Then when the time is right the seeds will (hopefully!) grow. Good ol' Mother Nature doing what she does best. And something else really great about this method is that your baby plants will be super sturdy and won't need your typical hardening off to get them used to outside because, well, they're already out there. Win!

Recycling at it's finest! We used milk jugs, yogurt containers, and even the container from the roast chicken we had for dinner the other night! A super benefit of this method is the money you will save by using what you have on hand.

We had beautiful weather today and I had two very sweet assistants, so it made for a lovely time planting seeds. We planted several different herbs, tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage and even onions. Now we get to sit by and watch and wait.

Relaxing in the sun, soaking up some vitamin D.

Making plans in the garden notebook.

Watering those seeds!

If you'd like to know more about Winter Sowing be sure to jump over to WinterSown.org. This is where I first came across this method and they have lots of great info to get you started. It really is sooo easy!

I do have a bit of proof that this method works. In November I planted some lettuce and spinach seeds out in the garden. This was supposed to happen in September, but somehow time got away from me. I made a nice little greenhouse tent for them, hoping to have a little "winter garden". Well, the wind took that dream away and I figured all was lost. Then a few weeks ago when we were having some superb weather for this time of year, I was poking around in the garden and there were little green sprouts popping up!! There was my lettuce and spinach! I quickly made a new greenhouse over them and they are slowly growing and we should maybe have some yummies for snacking on in a few more weeks! I am quite amazed that throwing seeds in the ground so crazily in November is actually paying off!

My "greenhouse".

Lettuce!

Spinach!

I have great hopes and expectations for our Winter sown seeds. We will be sure to keep you updated with our successes and failures. Though I hope there won't be so much of the latter.

What are your gardening activities this time of year where you live?

Blessings!