Hi Donna! There is actually an entire Winter Sowing forum here. I tried WS for the first time this year, mostly through encouragement and advice from all the wonderful people there. There's also a new feature of the Plant Files for WS info. It's a work in progress, I believe. I'm not certain if there's a direct link, but try this:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/ws/
Who takes care of seeds for newbies
I lived in Buffalo, NY for 9 years. Compared to that, no we really don't have much of a winter. However, never underestimate mother nature. We had some late freezes this past winter... and it really delayed a lot of plants. It even killed some brugs and fire spikes that had been there for years and years. I usually start my seeds outside in early March at the latest, often Feb. Depends on what the calendar looks like. But I had to wait until almost April to start this year. So, I can get cold here. I just hate it when it does it so late in the season.
Yeah, I definitely have some good candidates for winter sowing. Poppies and Snap Dragons for starters. But I am told to put the seed out for them in like November. I have quite a variety of seed, so no problem finding some that I can do this with.
Thanks,
Donna
Alot of my seeds I sowed in their milk jugs & sat out in December and January.
Those 3000 kinds of seeds did not all get to stay with me but it was fun redistributing them. Now that I have had a few months to forget what a madhouse it was sending them back out I wouldn't mind hosting another one.
dylancgc you are mightly brave for sure when you say you wouldn't mind hosting another one....LOL
Talk about winter, here I was trying to get plans in a newly made flower bed this evening and I'm dressed in headband to keep my ears warm and to keep the cold wind out of them, and a turtle neck with a sweat shirt over it and I was still freezing,,,,,even while moving the leaf humus and top soil....never broke a sweat.... now I'm chilled to the bone....
I'm beginning to think summer just doesn't want to come to northern Ohio..
I was out in the flower bed this afternoon and it was pretty chilly still. I couldn't find any pants to wear, so I was stuck wearing shorts. The sun has FINALLY decided to poke its head out though, so it took some of the edge off.
dylancgc I'm taking a break from swaps right now because I need to actually get some of my WS stash planted, but it would be really wonderful if you would host a WS swap again this year. I really enjoyed that swap! AND this time we should have seeds from everything we planted from last year's swap to make it bigger & better. (Just what you don't want, right? You actually had 3,000 kinds of seeds to distribute? What an undertaking!)
Pamsaplantin- Yes I was amazed at the response to the WS swap. It was fun, I got to see so many new seeds that I had never heard of before. If I didn't know the name I looked it up and some were cool some not. I have so many WS seedlings to plant still. I do have 2 jugs that will be planted by the hunk of seedlings method. The people that participated were excellent about labeling seeds sent in. If they went to someone special they were packaged separately, if they were for open trade they were labeled as such. It was pretty easy to sort them out, except when I confused myself.
Well, it's already getting well into the 90's here... almost too hot to garden during the day. I can't take much sun... allergic reaction. Even with 50 SPF sun block. So I wear scrub pants (the kind the doctors wear) ... nice and cool actually. A hat... as I pull back my hair back to keep it out of my face, and I need cover for my neck and ears. I have also learned to hang a wet towel around my neck. That really helps to keep you cool. I haven't found the long sleeved shirt that I need yet. And my arms do take a beating from the sun. I'm looking for a really poofy long sleeved shirt that is very light... preferably a light color too. I do try to do my work in wherever it's shady. But sometimes that isn't possible.
I still have many seedlings to get into the garden that I planted in April. I don't feel so bad now!!
My neighbor visited my patio today & couldn't believe my "nursery". I think I probably have thousands of individual seedlings, so they will definitely get the "hunk-o-seedlings" treatment. I spent 5 hours last night dividing & transplanting part of the perennials & I haven't "touched the hem of the garment". Decided to start with whatever looks like it can't wait any longer. I couldn't resist trying to root some cuttings when I did spring pruning this year. So I have a half flat of Nippon daisies & a bunch of other stuff, too. Plus, all the things I got from the perennial co-op. And I haven't finished planting my vegetable garden either. I sure hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. I have no appointments so I need to work outside all day!!
When transplanting seedlings I try to use this rule of thumb... make sure they have 2 sets of "true" leaves. Most of mine usually have that and then some before I get around to transplanting them. But there is the occasion where I do younger ones.
Donna
I did a bunch before they true leaves and needless to say they croaked. Many of my poppies did not make the transfer. I waited until later to do some of them and they are huge.
Lesson learned this year, don't get impatient. Patience is not my middle name.
Well, my grandmother tells me poppies are difficult to transplant any how. I will be sowing directly in the garden come November.
Donna
I didn't lose very many from transplanting from my milkjug I WS in to the seed cells or 4" pots. I was very careful with the taproot though. As long as the taproot is I can see where if you were digging them up out of the garden you would have trouble but I put them in pots for sale so you can just plant from the pot to the ground.
DonnaA2Z, have you ever tried any of the shirts with built-in UPF? My FIL was severely burned years ago, and cannot have any sun exposure on his skin at all. He wears a lot of these long-sleeved, light-weight UPF shirts to protect his skin. He orders some from this site (also have hats & pants with UPF). I started to look up individual shirts, but didn't know what you were looking for. If you enter UPF in the search bar, it will give you a whole list of long-sleeved, short sleeved, etc. options.
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?allwords=upf&searchdescriptions=true
He said the prices here were much lower than in the specialty stores and catalogs the doctors gave him. He has shirts from both kinds of sources, since that is basically all he can wear, and found the quality to be about the same, even many of the same brands for less.
HTH!
Angie