Welcome to the weekend coffee share! Can I get you a cup of coffee? Or tea? It is snowing outside.. and I started planting seeds yesterday. What? Why? Isn’t it a bit early, you ask. Well, I only sow seeds that benefit from the natural cold stratification to trigger germination. I have them outdoors in the cold, at all times, until Mother Nature wakes them up in the spring.
Brassicas, other cold hardy vegetables, and many varieties of salads benefits from winter sowing.
You can use any container/pot/jug you have at hand, as long as it has holes at the bottom (if it doesn’t have holes, make some). Fill the containers with soil (most soils will do the job, I prefer organic). Water lightly. Drizzle some seeds over the soil. Add a thin layer of soil on top of the seeds. Spray some water on top. Mark each container to remember what you planted.
Put your containers in a see-through plastic container, with a lid. I like putting the smaller pots in the bigger container at the beginning of the process, to avoid spilling soil everywhere. Some make sure the bigger container has holes at the bottom and the sides. I have some that have that, and some that don’t. The trick is to make sure the plants-to-be are ventilated, I keep the lid slightly open, and as the weather gets warmer int he spring I open it more and more, until I remove it completely. I placed this container at my balcony. I will make a similar set-up at my allotment as well. When it gets warmer you’ll need to start watering more frequently, but for now your seeds are sleeping and don’t need any attention.
Some separate the plants when they start growing, and plant them in individual pots, I usually don’t bother, they live in these containers until I plant them in my garden beds. This is a lazy kind of gardening that really works, if you live in a place that has cold winters. My experience is that the plants gets hardier and more resistant to pests, compared to plants that are started indoors. And of course you can skip the tedious step of acclimating the plants to the outdoors, since they already live outdoors. Many flowers are a great fit for winter sowing, such as: sunflowers, poppies, marigolds, cornflowers, petunias and many more. Have you tried winter sowing? I would love to hear about it, if you have! In your experience what plants are suitable for winter sowing?
Warm weather crops are less suitable, but some are not impossible. I’ve successfully grown tomatoes with this method, but it is smarter to plant them the traditional way, to get a longer growing season. The start for them is too slow with this method, at least in my climate.
Would you like a refill on your coffee? Or tea? How is your week? Please tell me in a comment. Thank you Natalie for hosting the Weekend Coffee Share.
Maria
GreenDreamsSweden 
What’s on your mind today?