Part of the frustration that comes with trying to start your own plants from seed is that it seems so complicated. Fluorescent lights, or full-spectrum lights? Heat mat, or no heat mat? Cell packs or peat pellets? Even if you don’t have a spare corner in your house, or budget constraints prevent you from spending money on flats and lights, you can still start from seed.
There is an alternative method of sowing seeds called Winter Sowing. It was developed by Trudi Davidoff after she had too many seeds to start and not nearly enough space. She thought to herself, ‚”Well, some seeds self-sow. You don’t need lights or cell packs or heat for those. Why can’t I just start some of my seeds outside?” And winter sowing was born. The method has been refined over the past several years, much due to the fact that Davidoff has made great use of the internet as a tool. As word about the method spread, more and more gardeners tried it and offered their feedback. Through her website, WinterSown.org, and the Winter Sowing Forum on iVillage Garden Web, Davidoff has stayed in close contact with both new and veteran winter sowers. It is a method that started out with its fair share of doubters, but it is growing in popularity, mostly due to its simplicity and how little expense is involved. And the proof is in the pudding (or the plants, as it were): in 2006, Winter Sowing was added to the USDA’s National Agricultural Library Thesaurus as an official plant propagation method.
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Winter Sowing is almost as much a philosophy as it is a method. It’s not about going to the garden center and plunking down your hard-earned cash for a bunch of supplies that cost more than the seeds you are trying to grow. In Winter Sowing, the containers you use are recycled from things you’ve already purchased. Milk jugs, two-liter soda bottles, salad take-out containers, and big plastic jars (the kind pretzels come in at warehouse clubs) are all popular winter sowing containers. The only requirements are that it must be able to hold at least three inches of soil and it must have head room for the growing plants. Drainage holes should be cut into the bottom, and air transpiration holes or slits should be cut into the top of the container. Fill the bottom of the container with at least three inches of whatever soil you like best, and moisten it well. The water should drain through the holes you’ve made in the bottom. Once your soil is wet, sow your seeds according to the package directions. Cover your container, and set it in a spot outdoors. The only place containers shouldn’t be placed is under awnings or overhangs, since the seeds will be watered in large part by melting snow, and then spring rains, and you want to make sure they get enough water. Keep your eye on your containers. Condensation is a good thing. If there is no condensation, it either means that you have too many transpiration holes (tape over some of them if this is the case) or your soil is drying out. As spring arrives, and the air warms up, your transpiration holes should be made bigger and bigger, until you remove the top of your container entirely. This is the winter sowing way to ‚”harden off” your plants. After they are hardened off, simply plant your transplants out in the garden.
Davidoff noticed that several annuals, perennials, and even vegetables self sowed, suggesting that they didn’t need the coddling that we so often associate with seed starting. How often have you found a tomato sprouting in your garden bed, even though you didn’t plant tomatoes this year? Fruit that fell the previous year leaves seeds in the soil, and those seeds germinate and grow. Annuals such as bachelor’s buttons, forget-me-nots, and cosmos self seed like crazy. Perennials, such as foxgloves, echinacea, and coreopsis self-sow. Instead of leaving this up to chance, winter sowers use this characteristic to their advantage. You decide what you want to grow, where it will grow, and how much to plant. Mother Nature makes the job easier. You’ll notice that many plants require a pretreatment method called ‚”stratification,” which means that the seeds need a period of moist, cold conditions before they will germinate. Such seeds are perfect for Winter Sowing. For a complete list of which plants will winter sow best in your area, visit WinterSown.org. Winter sowers all over the country have been contributing to the site, reporting what has winter sown successfully and what has not. That is another part of the winter sowing ‚”philosophy”: it is about community. Winter Sowing has grown so fast because it spreads by word-of-mouth through enthusiastic winter sowers.
Annuals for Winter Sowing: (Many more can be found here.)
Perennials for Winter Sowing:(Many more can be found here.)
Winter sowers are proud of their yards, which in winter are lined with milk jugs and soda bottles ‚”filled with frozen dirt” and in spring, summer, and fall, bloom with the evidence that the method works. They are the ultimate re-users. For a winter sower, nothing goes to waste, and purchases are made specifically with the idea of how the container can be re-used later. They experiment. If they aren’t positive something will winter sow well, they put a few seeds in a container and see what happens. Then, they report their results to their winter sowing friends. They are observers of the environment and work with it to create beautiful gardens.
Winter Sowing is simple and fun. It will allow you to start more plants from seed than you ever dreamed you could. And if you have questions, there is a whole community of winter sowers out there to help you through!
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