Thank you @YessicaHaircut, it certainly is fun seeing what's popping up, especially as there's no fear of the small delicate seedlings getting cold, they're (hopefully) growing hard and strong.
Just popped out to have a squint down the bottle necks, can't see any seedling leaves yet, but the pansy, borage, stocks, statice, and onions have definitely germinated, their seeds have been pushed up to the top of the soil by a speck of a root. It appears I've got a container without a label... so this is going to be interesting.
Know how you feel about hospital visits, can certainly sympathise about the stress. It truly is marvellous what the medics achieve today.
Best of luck to you and your son, and I can't wait to see how 'winter sowing' transpires. It does seem quite natural.
How's everyone's progress with their winter sown seeds? I have been unable to resist sowing All The Things, and now have a ridiculously large number of containers. Probably upwards of 40 different seeds! Possibly a fair bit upwards...
My main things I will do differently next year are lining the base of my containers with coffee filters so that I feel happier about leaving them on the ground as slugs are less likely to enter, and getting my drainage right. A lot of my early sown containers grew algae as the drainage holes were insufficient. Most of the images I've seen of other people's containers for reference have been people in the US and I think our climate is a lot wetter than most American locations. So more drainage holes next year. However, I swung a bit too far in the other direction with some of my recent containers and had insufficient holes on top! So I need to get the balance right.
In general, I've had great success though. The only things that haven't yet germinated (not including those planted very recently) are my mixed hostas, annual Foxy foxgloves and aquilegia. I'm a bit concerned the foxgloves won't have enough time to flower this year, so I've now sown some indoors too - still waiting for germination. I had a single salvia patens and a single baptisia sprout for months, but now a couple more of each are emerging - I think algae/drainage could have been a factor here. But otherwise, so far, so good and I even have a couple of tomatoes that have sprouted. I was concerned I'd lose a lot of seedlings when the temperatures dropped recently, but that doesn't seem to have happened (yet?). It looks like the survivors will be nice and hardy.
I'd love to hear how things are coming on for the rest of you.
Results of my winter sowing in empty milk cartons (there's a pic above).
Think there was a 50/50 success rate, it may have been better if I hadn't stored the cartons along the NE facing house wall that doesn't get any sun until mid spring.
Hollyhocks, statice, lupin, foxgloves, borage, onions, delphiniums, sweet peas, stocks, and even tomato seeds germinated really well. There was some seeds that was a disaster, such as peas and beans - they simply rotted, plus some others that I can't remember.
I'm delighted with the hollyhocks delphinium and foxgloves, they've already got flower spikes shooting in their first year. Can't say the same for the lupins though. Think next January I'll have a go with sweet william to see if they will flower in their 1st year.
Was it worth it? I think it was. Once the seeds are sown in the carton and placed outside they could be forgotten until spring. After pricking the seedlings into trays sometime in March, they were placed in a small polythene tunnel without any heat. They were really robust and didn't need any hardening off, only a bit of care.
It was a little bit of gardening interest during the depth of winter. Except for 'hurrying' the hollyhocks and foxgloves along, doing the bulk of sowing on heat mats in March and April was more successful, though the seedlings needed much more care to stop them keeling over.
Great to hear your results, @Jenny_Aster, but sorry you only had success with about half of yours. Funnily enough foxgloves were one of my 'failures', with only a handful of seedlings (so not a complete failure) and way too small to flower this year despite them being foxy variety which is generally grown as an annual. Hopefully they'll perform for me next year.
I grew enough plants to fill three large planters under my front window, a huge new flower bed in the back garden, and also gave some away. One of my difficulties was that due to a late decision to create it and then lack of time to do so, I didn't manage to plant up my new border until the end of May, and most of the plants could have done with being in the ground weeks before this. I didn't have a chance to prick them out/pot on before that, so it really wasn't ideal, but they made it through. I definitely plan to do Winter Sowing again next year - I *think* I know why some of my failures happened - and will hopefully get plants in the ground a lot sooner. I was especially impressed with my tomatoes - strong, sturdy plants that laughed at the Spring frosts. A lot of my failures were earmarked for the shady part of the border, so I had to change plans there, but it's been very useful to see what's actually doing well there that I wouldn't have planted in the shade had I other options (nigella, linaria, malva). It's been a wonderful learning experience - some plants I wouldn't grow again, others I will grow a lot more of (ammi was a bit of an afterthought but I love it!) and have given me ideas for yet other plants I'd like to grow in future. I've rather lost my gardening mojo at the moment as the work it took to plant the border (3 full days) did a number on my hands and I had a nasty flare up of my dermatitis, which a/ prevented me doing any gardening while my hands healed and b/ kind of put me off. But I'm sure it'll come back.
My failures (zero results): Hosta Heuchera Salvia patens Zinnia Aquilegia Baptisia Cucumber
My marginal successes (very few plants): Pansies Foxgloves
My successes: Linaria maroccana Chives Verbena bon Nigella Cosmos Antirrhinum Lupins Hollyhocks (about to come into flower) Malva Echinacea Lobelia Dahlia Nemesia Calendula Flax Opium poppies Ammi majus Dill Tithonia Rudbeckia Salvia viridis Campanula pyramidalis Hardy geraniums Sunflowers Tomatoes Pumpkins
My first try to winter sow failed, most likely because my containers were overheated at some point.. but i'm ready to try again for the new gardening year.. think it's about time to start
Posts
Just popped out to have a squint down the bottle necks, can't see any seedling leaves yet, but the pansy, borage, stocks, statice, and onions have definitely germinated, their seeds have been pushed up to the top of the soil by a speck of a root. It appears I've got a container without a label... so this is going to be interesting.
Know how you feel about hospital visits, can certainly sympathise about the stress. It truly is marvellous what the medics achieve today.
Best of luck to you and your son, and I can't wait to see how 'winter sowing' transpires. It does seem quite natural.
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
My main things I will do differently next year are lining the base of my containers with coffee filters so that I feel happier about leaving them on the ground as slugs are less likely to enter, and getting my drainage right. A lot of my early sown containers grew algae as the drainage holes were insufficient. Most of the images I've seen of other people's containers for reference have been people in the US and I think our climate is a lot wetter than most American locations. So more drainage holes next year. However, I swung a bit too far in the other direction with some of my recent containers and had insufficient holes on top! So I need to get the balance right.
In general, I've had great success though.
I'd love to hear how things are coming on for the rest of you.
Think there was a 50/50 success rate, it may have been better if I hadn't stored the cartons along the NE facing house wall that doesn't get any sun until mid spring.
Hollyhocks, statice, lupin, foxgloves, borage, onions, delphiniums, sweet peas, stocks, and even tomato seeds germinated really well. There was some seeds that was a disaster, such as peas and beans - they simply rotted, plus some others that I can't remember.
I'm delighted with the hollyhocks delphinium and foxgloves, they've already got flower spikes shooting in their first year. Can't say the same for the lupins though. Think next January I'll have a go with sweet william to see if they will flower in their 1st year.
Was it worth it? I think it was. Once the seeds are sown in the carton and placed outside they could be forgotten until spring. After pricking the seedlings into trays sometime in March, they were placed in a small polythene tunnel without any heat. They were really robust and didn't need any hardening off, only a bit of care.
It was a little bit of gardening interest during the depth of winter. Except for 'hurrying' the hollyhocks and foxgloves along, doing the bulk of sowing on heat mats in March and April was more successful, though the seedlings needed much more care to stop them keeling over.
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
I grew enough plants to fill three large planters under my front window, a huge new flower bed in the back garden, and also gave some away. One of my difficulties was that due to a late decision to create it and then lack of time to do so, I didn't manage to plant up my new border until the end of May, and most of the plants could have done with being in the ground weeks before this. I didn't have a chance to prick them out/pot on before that, so it really wasn't ideal, but they made it through. I definitely plan to do Winter Sowing again next year - I *think* I know why some of my failures happened - and will hopefully get plants in the ground a lot sooner. I was especially impressed with my tomatoes - strong, sturdy plants that laughed at the Spring frosts. A lot of my failures were earmarked for the shady part of the border, so I had to change plans there, but it's been very useful to see what's actually doing well there that I wouldn't have planted in the shade had I other options (nigella, linaria, malva). It's been a wonderful learning experience - some plants I wouldn't grow again, others I will grow a lot more of (ammi was a bit of an afterthought but I love it!) and have given me ideas for yet other plants I'd like to grow in future. I've rather lost my gardening mojo at the moment as the work it took to plant the border (3 full days) did a number on my hands and I had a nasty flare up of my dermatitis, which a/ prevented me doing any gardening while my hands healed and b/ kind of put me off. But I'm sure it'll come back.
My failures (zero results):
Hosta
Heuchera
Salvia patens
Zinnia
Aquilegia
Baptisia
Cucumber
My marginal successes (very few plants):
Pansies
Foxgloves
My successes:
Linaria maroccana
Chives
Verbena bon
Nigella
Cosmos
Antirrhinum
Lupins
Hollyhocks (about to come into flower)
Malva
Echinacea
Lobelia
Dahlia
Nemesia
Calendula
Flax
Opium poppies
Ammi majus
Dill
Tithonia
Rudbeckia
Salvia viridis
Campanula pyramidalis
Hardy geraniums
Sunflowers
Tomatoes
Pumpkins
A few pictures