Foggy frost

This morning we had fog and frost.  It was beautiful!  The top picture is from our Rosa Rugosa bushes.  The rose hips really stand out in the snow.  The other shot is of some trees in the neighborhood.

Almost a week into winter sowing

Well, last Saturday I planted the little seeds and stuck them outside to freeze their little seed butts off.  Mother Nature has been kind enough to cover them with a nice white blanket of snow so they are truly tucked in!  This year I used all Burpee seeds (so far) and Miracle Gro seed/seedling starter for my planting. 

Reflecting on last years mostly failed winter sowing project, this is what I learned.  Don't forget to cut drainage holes in the containers!  I drowned my poor little seeds & seedlings.  Also, if you use a closed top container, be sure to put holes in the top too so you don't bake the poor things.  I'm surprised I got as much as I did last year for as badly as I treated the poor things!

Something I'm looking forward to this year: I dug out all my strawberry plants last spring and planted all new ones (bare root so they were tiny) so I had a year without strawberries  :(  In spite of the drought, I think a few of the plants will be big enough this year that I can get a few to nibble on.  It was fun trying to get the runners of the new plants to go where I wanted them to, and not wherever they felt like going.

I realized that I completely forgot to but Gerbera daisy seeds!  Shame on me!  They are my absolute favorite flower and I totally skipped over them when I was buying seeds.  I'll have to save a few more milk jugs so I can get more sown. I want to have a whole patch of just those this year.

I am getting really ancy and I can't wait to get out there and get some "real" planting done, but sadly I know it's going to be another 10 weeks at minimum before I get to.  *sigh*

Little seeds tucked in for the winter!

14 jugs and 2 trays so far.

Wintersowing 2013

February means it's time to break out the dirt, seeds and containers and do some planting!  For some of you, that may not sound like a big deal, but did I mention I live in Wisconsin?  Yes, planting - outside - in February in Wisconsin.

Interested?  Check out the Wintersown website if you want to learn more.

This year, so far I have 14 milk jugs and 2 trays of fiber pots sitting in the snow waiting to grow.  I ordered the seeds direct from Burpee and got some other Burpee seeds from Fleet Farm.

Here's what I've planted so far:

Vegetables
In the trays

• Sweet peppers - Red Majesty Hybrid, Big Dipper and California Wonder
• Cucumbers - Greencrisp burpless hybrid and Burpless beauty
• Tomatoes - Big Daddy Hybrid, Cherry Punch Hybrid, Polar Star and Polish Dwarf
• Jalepeno pepper

Flowers & plants
In the trays

• Mexican Hat
• Crackerjack Marigold
• Wildflower blend
• Catmint - blue heaven
• Coreopsis - Mardi Gras

In the jugs

• 2 jugs of Blue Fescue grass
• Rudbeckia - Moroccan Sun Mix
• Rudbeckia - Indian Summer
• Shirley Poppy
• Columbine - Harlequin mix
• Painted Daisy - giant mixed colors
• Coneflower blend
• Echinacea -Warm summer mix
• Aztec gold hybrid sunflower
• Chianti sunflower
• Vanilla Ice sunflower
• Autumn beauty mix sunflower
• Italian white sunflower

To be direct sown in the spring

• Heatwave blend lettuce
• Cherry belle radish
• Early perfection pea
• Burpee's tenderpod bush bean
• Gold mine bush bean

We'll see how it goes...I think I learned from last year's mistakes.