It will probably work differently in much of the UK: snow covering would help to insulate the containers and growing conditions would be less damp.
I'm going for tree seedlings this year. I have seeds of Acer davidii, Acer griseum, Gleditsia triacanthos, Maackia amurensis, Cornus controversa, and a few others. I have them in 9cm pots inside small freezer bags with the name and sowing date, outside on a raised ledge where they have been since October. I tried it for the last two years and got some successes, including a small cedar of lebanon which is now nearly two years old. But I do find that many species don't work well after germinating. I have yet to get a single Cercis to live beyond a few weeks before succumbing to fungal diseases. And I recently read that only 3/100 Acer griseum seeds are actually fertile! (I planted 7...)
Yes it's definitely nice to have something garden related to get cracking with in the new year, @newbie77. Did you have any particular successes or abject failures?
I love a good ritual, @Joyce Goldenlily. I've not grown onions before - when can you expect to harvest the ones sown at New Year?
The onion seed I sowed on New Years Day came through a couple of weeks ago. I have moved them from a window sill in the house, into an unheated double glazed conservatory which is cooler. They are looking well, about 4 ins. tall now, wearing their seed caps jauntily on their tops. I will wait until I can see a slight swelling at the base before pricking them out into individual mini pots. Once established and growing away again, I will move them into an unheated greenhouse where they will stay, probably potting on once more, until big enough to plant out in the garden. They will be ready to crop, about August, depending on the weather. The elderly gentleman who advised me to try this used to show his onions in our local August Bank Holiday show. I saw him pushing pins into the base of his onions before submitting them for the end of show auction. When I asked him why, he told me he was an RHS Veg. Judge and had recognised his own onions when judging at another show. Someone had bought his onions in the auction and taken them to a different show to exhibit in their name. What some people will do to win a £1.00 or two. When I was Show Sec. one of our tea ladies asked me if a certain gentleman was showing in the garden pinks class. I said "Yes". She told me she had seen him buying a bunch from a market stall outside where the show was being held, to go with the ones he had grown. He won a first but because I myself had not seen what he had done, there was nothing I could do about it! What satisfaction does anyone get from doing that kind of thing?
How on earth do you keep seedbeds free from weeds throughout the winter? Down here in Cornwall weeds never stop growing.
Oh that's funny about the show shenanigans, Joyce!
For winter sowing, everything is covered until seedlings are a good size, so it all but eliminates the weed issue. It's the same here though in Sussex - the garden has a thriving selection of very healthy looking weeds. It's my first year gardening and I'm hoping some of last year's flowers will have self sown, but I'm not confident I won't pull them up as weeds. I figure the bigger they are, the more likely I'll be able to recognise them as something I want. Seems like a good idea to delay any weeding to me anyway.
I'd put my winter sowing on pause for about a month as I was having medical investigations and facing the potential of going through breast cancer treatment again for the next few months, so was concerned about sowing a bunch of seeds and then not having the capacity to deal with them, but I got the all clear this week so full steam ahead again with the winter sowing. Today I sowed the following: Hollyhocks Rudbeckia Seeds which I collected from a beautiful deep pink velvety snapdragon on a grass verge. I know they probably won't come true the parent but it will be interesting to see what I get - if anything. It's my first time sowing collected seed. Linaria maroccana Nemesia Gerbera Tithonia
And I have some seedlings. 3 out of 12 of my hardy geraniums have sprouted, as have my lupins and clary sage.
Trees from seed sounds super impressive, @Cambridgerose12 - I'll be really interested to hear how things progress with those. Do you have a picture of your cedar of lebanon? The odds for the Acer griseum sound quite woeful though - fingers crossed you've got a lively one amongst your seven!
Well done @YessicaHaircut re your medical investigations. Know how elated you must feel, I belong to the same 'club' (joined 22 years ago )
This 'winter sowing' lark has really peeked my interest. I've got quite a few '4 litre milk containers' on the go. I did have a peek down the bottle necks to see if there are any signs of life. Hope it's not my imagination but I think the statice seeds have germinated, looks like the seeds have risen to the top of the compost, pushed up by small white 'flecks' of root.
Hope copying the spreadsheet holds its formatting and is comprehensible
One of the 'beauties' of this method, if the seeds don't germinate, it's not too late to sow more seeds using heat.
I have just got around to sowing my all year round spring onions. the container is on a sunny windowsill. I used all purpose seed compost topped with vermiculite in a plastic supermarket meat tray. Now I am just sitting back and waiting for the miracle to happen.
Oh look at all your container's @Jenny_Aster - looking like a winter sowing pro! I see we have some overlaps in our lists, so it will be interesting to see if we get comparable results. My snapdragons have now sprouted, and I have a single Salvia patens seedling. I wasn't expecting to have so much growing this early, and I still haven't finished sowing, but it's been a mild winter. I'm not sure what will happen if we go on to get a cold snap, but as you say, the beauty is there should still be time to sow more seeds indoors.
And congratulations on 22 years! I'm 6 years down the line from diagnosis. My son is only 12 and has complex additional needs and I home educate him, so I'm definitely not ready to pop my clogs yet. I'm not generally a worrier but of course it's always at the back of your mind, and when I got a call back from my annual MRI, I obviously feared the worst. It doesn't help that since transferring to a new hospital, my invitations for screening all say HIGH RISK mammogram and HIGH RISK MRI (yes in capitals!) just in case we forget.
Posts
I'm going for tree seedlings this year. I have seeds of Acer davidii, Acer griseum, Gleditsia triacanthos, Maackia amurensis, Cornus controversa, and a few others. I have them in 9cm pots inside small freezer bags with the name and sowing date, outside on a raised ledge where they have been since October. I tried it for the last two years and got some successes, including a small cedar of lebanon which is now nearly two years old. But I do find that many species don't work well after germinating. I have yet to get a single Cercis to live beyond a few weeks before succumbing to fungal diseases. And I recently read that only 3/100 Acer griseum seeds are actually fertile! (I planted 7...)
The onion seed I sowed on New Years Day came through a couple of weeks ago. I have moved them from a window sill in the house, into an unheated double glazed conservatory which is cooler. They are looking well, about 4 ins. tall now, wearing their seed caps jauntily on their tops. I will wait until I can see a slight swelling at the base before pricking them out into individual mini pots. Once established and growing away again, I will move them into an unheated greenhouse where they will stay, probably potting on once more, until big enough to plant out in the garden. They will be ready to crop, about August, depending on the weather.
The elderly gentleman who advised me to try this used to show his onions in our local August Bank Holiday show. I saw him pushing pins into the base of his onions before submitting them for the end of show auction. When I asked him why, he told me he was an RHS Veg. Judge and had recognised his own onions when judging at another show. Someone had bought his onions in the auction and taken them to a different show to exhibit in their name. What some people will do to win a £1.00 or two.
When I was Show Sec. one of our tea ladies asked me if a certain gentleman was showing in the garden pinks class. I said "Yes". She told me she had seen him buying a bunch from a market stall outside where the show was being held, to go with the ones he had grown. He won a first but because I myself had not seen what he had done, there was nothing I could do about it!
What satisfaction does anyone get from doing that kind of thing?
How on earth do you keep seedbeds free from weeds throughout the winter? Down here in Cornwall weeds never stop growing.
For winter sowing, everything is covered until seedlings are a good size, so it all but eliminates the weed issue. It's the same here though in Sussex - the garden has a thriving selection of very healthy looking weeds. It's my first year gardening and I'm hoping some of last year's flowers will have self sown, but I'm not confident I won't pull them up as weeds. I figure the bigger they are, the more likely I'll be able to recognise them as something I want. Seems like a good idea to delay any weeding to me anyway.
I'd put my winter sowing on pause for about a month as I was having medical investigations and facing the potential of going through breast cancer treatment again for the next few months, so was concerned about sowing a bunch of seeds and then not having the capacity to deal with them, but I got the all clear this week so full steam ahead again with the winter sowing.
Hollyhocks
Rudbeckia
Seeds which I collected from a beautiful deep pink velvety snapdragon on a grass verge. I know they probably won't come true the parent but it will be interesting to see what I get - if anything. It's my first time sowing collected seed.
Linaria maroccana
Nemesia
Gerbera
Tithonia
And I have some seedlings.
I know not everything's going to be successful, but I'll be gutted if I don't have at least a handful of successes!
This 'winter sowing' lark has really peeked my interest. I've got quite a few '4 litre milk containers' on the go. I did have a peek down the bottle necks to see if there are any signs of life. Hope it's not my imagination but I think the statice seeds have germinated, looks like the seeds have risen to the top of the compost, pushed up by small white 'flecks' of root.
Hope copying the spreadsheet holds its formatting and is comprehensible
One of the 'beauties' of this method, if the seeds don't germinate, it's not too late to sow more seeds using heat.
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
I have just got around to sowing my all year round spring onions. the container is on a sunny windowsill. I used all purpose seed compost topped with vermiculite in a plastic supermarket meat tray. Now I am just sitting back and waiting for the miracle to happen.
https://youtu.be/mhqT1kUVSk0
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
And congratulations on 22 years!