Wintersowing

Hi, Chris- I have done seeds indoors, I'd like to see a thread.
Otherwise, take advantage of the cuddle- in the- house winter, such as it is, and get good and healed up. onl two months to mMarch 6 and that's two weeks to the vernal equinox..
Saw a cherry tree in full bloom today. The Cherry Blossom Festiaval may get spoiled, boo hoo :...{ (that's supposed to be tears and a quivering lip : ^))
If you want to 'hear' a spring morning go find Morning Mood by Grieg and listen to the beginning,

I was going through some old threads here and came across this, might be of some help, haven't seen many of the names lately, hope they still visit with us.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/575827/

very informative thread, good time to see how other people were doing with their projects last year.

How's the wintersowing going? Anyone have sprouts yet?

Just got seven types of seed sown today. (i had seven milk jugs.)

Sally- I did the columbines so they will have some freeze and thaw cycles over the next couple of months.

Some cold weather coming this way but I'm flying to Phoenix, Arizona tomorrow!

Thanks for asking shirley. I purchased a bit of seed starting soil on Saturday. Hubby says that I will need about three times as much as I bought. Oh yeah, he finally put one of the kiddie pools that I plan to use on the deck where I plan to plant. It has been so warm and I have had so much else going on that I haven't begun any seeds yet.

The temperatures are supposed to drop here today and be cold for a while. I am figuring that after this weekend I will begin the sowing. I read the winter sowing posts from last year that Chris posted here last week and it seemed that most of those folks were just beginning in February, so I don't think is a great big rush.

I spent a lot of time yesterday working on houseplants. Most of them are looking pretty good at the moment. I still have a few to tend to that I didn't get to yesterday. My husband has planted so many day lilies that he got from his parents place that I am not sure where I will find space to plant what I am planning to grow. ha-ha He spent a lot of time and effort recently saving by transplanting mostly day lilies from his home place that is being prepared for sale. Both of his parents were master gardeners, so they had some lovely things at one time. When I first met John about 15 years ago and I first visited his parents place I was very much impressed by their lovely gardens. That is where I was introduced to hostas and fell in love. Theirs seemed to be growing two and three feet wide. I have never grown one that big, but I usually have a pretty good number of them.

Are you winter sowing shirley? What is your progress? Hello green, good going on the getting seven started. You are ahead of me. Anyway, have a safe trip to Arizona. Is this business or pleasure? if I may ask? Have a good time, whatever.

Also, speak up ladygardener and sally. Any input? I hope that everyone will have a good week. Thanks for being here for me.

Ruby

quoted: " That is where I was introduced to hostas and fell in love. " with the hostas, or John? My dentist 's office building has the most enormous hosta I ever saw- I got some seed to try my luck but haven't read lately the best way.

wintersowing is a new concept to me. I have done indoor seedlings a bit. I think I get better germination there than on open ground, that hasn't worked well for me usually, I must be messing up some way. I should try some W/S

Sure you should try some winter sowing. You don't have any thing to lose. I plant to begin some time next week and am looking forward to it.

I know what you mean about how my falling in love sounded like. I fell in love with both of course. ha-ha I meant I fell in love with the hosta, but I can recall the very moment that I did fall in love with John. We were in our late 30's and were acting like silly teenagers in ga-ga love. We were sitting on the floor talking about our childhoods and he told a story of how he and his siblings were made to work on the farm. Now, his father was District Attorney for the small town that they lived in, but also ran a farming operation. I looked at the situation almost as child abuse really, even though my dad was a farmer too and I have been called upon to do things that a female shouldn't have to do. ha-ha. Anyway, bleeding heart old me right then and there fell in love and wanted to take care of this man and see to it that he was never used or abused again. I still feel the same way. I am very much in love with him and feel very, very blessed to have him in my life. I am a very lucky woman.

Anyway, find you some seeds and a milk jug and join the club. Only requirement for joining the club is that you post your progress from time to time. Thanks for checking in sally.

Ruby

There's a sweet story! You are lucky to feel in love and lucky!! so is John.
I think some of us would be better off if we had grown up on a farm with things we HAD to do.
Milk jug, no problem- new empties made almost daily here.
greenkat- good job! now I'll stop pestering you with my little columbine germination trivia~~!
Wonder if my lettuce froze in the cold frame- if not last night then by this weekend for sure.

Sally, I have two sons. One could drink a gallon a day if he wanted and almost makes it that much. The other son will not touch it for the past couple of years. Not sure where that came from because he used to drink a lot of at least chocolate milk.
I didn't drink much milk as a teen either. I hope that he is getting enough of the dairy requirements. He looks healthy enough, but thinking on it, he actually has a very poor diet. Maybe he will outgrow all the mess that he eats now and develop a taste for some new and healthy foods.

Have you checked out the thread that ladygardener1 started about sowing inside, under lights? You might want to think about that too if you are feeling at all antsy about the "need" to get your hands dirty. ha-ha


How about this crazy weather. For three or four days I had all windows and doors open all day. Now the past two days have been cold, cold, cold. My better half tells me that they are calling for a rain and snow mix here tomorrow. Oh well. It can rain and snow all that it wants to if I still have power and coffee in the house. I would like to see at least one good sized snow this winter.

Take care

Ruby

The rain and snow mix worries me because then we could end up with ice. Speaking of not having power.

I was here alone for three days with no power when we had the bad ice storm several years ago. I was okay, though. Plenty of heat from the woodstove and I have several flourescent camping lanterns ($15 at Costco and lots of light in an emergency.) I even managed to keep the fish in the aquarium warm by putting a kerosene space heater on the floor in front of the aquarium. It kept the water warm enough that they didn't suffer any harm.

I was able to do a little cooking on the woodstove and even heat water for instant coffee. Yuck, but I had coffee.

Good luck to all about keeping power-
I was looking at a bunch of pictures from Nebraska, via another thread on DG. Hopefuly, as somebody said there, many of those people are woodstove/generator savvy and not in immediate trouble, altho, hart, i'm with you, instant coffe is for survival, not long term maintenance of a human being. One cup a day will hold me but please make it real.
Those camping fluorescents are super. There is also a combo fan plus light that I got for my sis and BIL in FLA , who often lose power in warm/hot weather.
We more often have lost power after a hurricane type event, and the weather then (september) is usually beautiful, and I love the excuse t play campout, even with semi-working toilets(well water= no water without power)

Hi all! No snow in Phoenix, although I flew over a lot of white on the way here. Today's high is expected to be in low 60's. Ditto the next few days. Guess my winter sown seeds are back home chillin'.

Ruby, so sorry to hear you are ill.

I'll try to check the Mid-Atlantic threads, but need to spend time with the folks. My Dad wants me to run errands and take Mom for her chemo today. Gotta run.

greenkat

hey greenkat- sounds like you're paying your parents back for all the trouble you were as a kid -wink
Good luck with Mom's chemo. Don't know if you know what to expect. My aunt scared the cra- out of me before my mom's chemo and it was good that she did bring me to reality. One was bad. Then the doctor changed it and it was absolutely totally symptom free. And the nurses at chemo were the most wonderful ever. So best wishes for less symptoms. Hurray for your brave Mom and everybody else who faces chemo.

Yes green, I am with sally on wishing everyone in Phoenix all the best. I didn't realize that your mother was having chemo. So sorry to hear that.

Anyway, have a good time and come on home as soon as you can. Thank you for staying in touch with the board while you are away. I start to miss people when I don't hear from them for a while.

Adios.

Ruby

And gee folks, what happened to us? I know that I have been very involved in getting to doctor appointments and helping with son's wedding. The wedding was yesterday, so that part at least is over. The wedding was really lovely.

I plan to begin the winter sowing at some point this week. The next week I will be having another surgery. At least it is in and out surgery this time. I am hoping to find a few days that were like yesterday here. In the 50's makes it okay to be outside. I don't want to be working out side in the cold, cold.

Has anyone else done anything that they would like to share here? I might check out the wintersowing forum in a bit and see how those folks are doing. If I learn anything, I will report back.

Everyone, have a good week coming up.

Ruby

I am getting real close to kicking off my winter sowing season! I prepped about 12 containers...mostly milk jugs. I have a bunch of seeds. I collected quite a bit myself, I purchased a few packs mail order and I got a BUNCH of seeds from the swap on the Winter Sowing forum. Despite having way too many seeds, the display at Lowes pulled me in the other night and I came home with 5 more packs.

I picked up a monster 3.8 cu ft compressed bale of Pro Mix. I got it at Williams Greenhouses in Sterling for $26. Williams is sure an odd place. I added an entry for them to the "Go Gardening" section if anybody has comments to add.

Today I am home from work sick. ;-) I though maybe I could fill a few containers, but right now I have a massive headache. If not today, the definitely in the next week I will start putting out containers. I expect that I will prep 20 to 30 containers this year.

- Brent

Hi all! My neighbors saved milk jugs for me and I was able to WS 8 more containers. I put perennials in the gal. size. I’m trying some annuals in the smaller ones.

Has anyone had success with sweet peas in this area? I have tried direct sowing them the past couple of years and been very disappointed. I think sweet peas need cool weather to flower. Also, they seem to be a delicacy for the slugs. Ideas anyone?

Hi Brent and Kathleen- Ha- ha you sound so much like me Brent. When I was buying seed, I was REALLY buying seed. I have a lot to sow. You and I also seem to be on about the same schedule as far as the actual sowing goes. It will be either this weekend, or some time next week that I actually mix the seed with the soil.

Greenkat - I was disappointed with sweet peas last summer too. They looked alright for a little while, but dried out very fast and faded early. I did notice after most everything in bed had died that these came back a bit when the temperatures dropped.

Anyone else making any progress?

Have a great day all.

Ruby

Greenkat, you have to plant peas really early, as soon as you can. I usually plant mine in April but you might be able to push that a little in your area. As soon as the hot weather arrives, they just fade. You can also grow them in late summer for fall picking. I haven't done that. It's too darned dry here in August to try to get peas to germinate.

Found this info:

When the snow has just melted, and there's still a nip in the air, it's time to plant peas. They are a cool-season crop; they'll even withstand a frost or two.

Once you've picked a variety, plant your peas when the forsythia is in bloom or when the soil temperature is between 40 and 45 degrees. They thrive in an area that gets full sun and has well-drained, rich soil.

Soaking the pea seeds overnight helps speed up germination.

There are a couple of things you can do to boost germination. If your soil is lacking nutrients, dust the pea seeds with an inoculant. This will give them a nitrogen fix and help them grow quickly. Also, soak the seeds overnight.

Provide a structure, such as this one, for your pea vines to climb.

Many peas are climbers, so you need to plant them next to a structure. Use a pencil to create a tiny hole about an inch deep, every two inches. This makes it easy to drop the seed inside and cover them up.

Peas are thirsty plants, so keep them well-watered especially when they start blooming. Add a layer of mulch to keep the soil cool and the weeds out. This will help extend your harvest by two to three weeks. In about two months, you'll be harvesting nature's sweet candy.

And this:

Peas are a cool-weather crop that can withstand frost. Northern gardeners can often plant their first crop near the end of March, as soon as the garden has thawed and the soil can be worked. A few varieties, however, are happier being planted when it's warmer and harvested during midsummer. Seed catalogs and packets indicate the preferred time for planting different varieties.

hart- whata coincidence. I just asked for pea advice on another thread. folks in Geogia have already planted them apparently, and had frost on them.
Thanks so much for the details. I've been planting mid March but maybe could go even earlier.

Hello Hart! Thanks so much for the sweet pea info. I'm going to change my spring planting strategy. Sweet peas to the front yard where there is plenty of sun in winter. Waiting for the sun to shine on the back just won't work.

Am I a ditz or what? I read your post to say "peas" and not sweet peas. Well, it's the same difference I think but I was talking about the peas you eat. Sweet peas I haven't grown but I think the planting info is the same.

You are just too cute hart. ha-ha You are picking up some of my traits. I am about the goofiest person I have ever met.

Well, I haven't spent any time wintersowing this week yet. I now hear that next week the temps are going to be even lower than this weeks. Hubby did put soil in one of my kiddie pools. I suppose that I could go ahead and go through seed packets and decide what all I will try growing in it. Other than the two pools that I am planning to use, the other things can be done inside and then taken outside to their winter home

I might go through my seed packets while waiting for my chili to cook. I do need to start making it before it can cook though. ha-ha It is supposed to snow a bit later today, so I thought that chili would be a good snow watching food.

I hope that everyone will have a good day. Take care all.

Ruby

Yea...I got my first 6 containers out yesterday!!! I did not get any done the previous week because I decided I would rather spend the weekend in the hospital. YUK! Nothing real serious but they did keep me in the Intensive Care Unit for a day.

I don't know how many containers I will get this year. The last time I did about 25 containers and it was a bit too much work keeping up with all the seedlings in the spring and summer. I am thinking of about 16 containers of perennials and another 6 or so of annuals.

- Brent

Congrats on getting your containers out! I sorted some seeds into possible feb & mar, but if i don't do more than that it will be moot ;-)
Glad nothing serious re hospital...no fun there.

lynda

Hey Brent! That's no fun! Hope you are all better now.