Hi Val, glad you wandered over. Welcome.

I sow mostly flowers, only veggies I've tried were tomatoes. They were tiny at plantout, but quickly caught up to my nursery-bought ones. They started to produce fruit around the same time, too.

Hopefully some of the regular veggie growers will offer some comments.

Karen

Hi there,

I have winter sowed tomatoes, melons, squash, and a variety of herbs. I treat the veggies like annuals, so in my zone 5 of WI, I don't sow these until the beginning of April. I love sowing the herbs--so many more plants for less money and when I lose a few to frost, no biggie! (I had over 200 basil seedlings last year, four different varieties, and I loved sharing them with friends. Hostess gifts for the summer!)

For the peas and radishes, these are cold crops, and I just plant them outside around St. Patrick's day. As a root crop, I don't know if radishes would transplant very well.

I haven't tried winter sowing beans, but they are such an easy to grow plant. But I can't get mine to harvest time because the slugs and earwhigs eat the plants first. :(

There are many experienced veggie growers in this forum. I have read about broccoli, cauliflower, kale, tomatoes, etc. If you google--on google-- "winter sow veggies gardenweb" you should get a few of the discussions from recent years.

By the way, Val, I have enjoyed the thread you started on the Compost, Soil, Mulch forum. I blurked on gardenweb for two years before joining last year, and I still don't feel comfortable enough to actually post on the C,S,M forum. (I did get the courage to post on the rose forum. :)) However, I learn so much from all the people there, and I consider myself a compost whacko in spirit if not posting. :)

cheers,
Nora Belle

Nora Belle, I'm glad you were comfortable enough to post here! I've never winter sown veggies, I don't get a whole lot of sun. Many of of my full sun flowers do ok, and with your success in zone 5, I think I might try.

If your peas have enough time to mature in our short season, then that's what I'll start with.

Have you heard about upside-down tomatoes? I wonder if that would work for beans? Then slugs, earwhigs and other no see 'em's wouldn't be able to bother them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Tomatoes Upside-Down

In cooler zones, starting your beans in a papertowel/baggie might give you enough of a head start to harvest. They need really warm nights to germinate. Skip that and they'll grow anyway. So I would skip the wintersowing for any beans in zone 5.

Karen! (waves vigorously) How's it goin'? I'm afraid I'm too afraid to try tomato plants yet. Maybe when I get a few years under my belt. If I become a maniac about this, it's all YOUR fault. Welllll....yours and Tiffy's (big grin)

Hey Norabelle - That's all good info on the veggies. Looks like I picked the wrong ones to start with. No matter, I haven't actually planted anything yet. Now that I think about it, you're right about the radishes, they probably wouldn't transplant well. Didn't know about putting peas out so early either. Will try that this year. Around St. Pat's day you say?

The SCM forum can be a little intimidating, can't it? I think it's a shame when some people get so narrow minded about how things should be done (or so they think). I'll bet you wouldn't be surprised to know I actually got a hate email from someone about that post I started. Isn't that a hoot?! To think people can get that upset by things.

Compost whackos...wackos...er I mean Enthusiasts should be kinder to each other. LOL

I'm going to try the google search and see what I can come up with. Thanks ladies.

Val

Hi Token - Looks like I'm batting a thousand. Ok, will skip the beans too. Looks like I'm going to have to do a lot more research on this whole veggie growing thing.

Hmmm....maybe some marigolds LOL

Val

Marigolds wintersow well. As I told you before I'm the crazy flower lady in the neighborhood, know nothing of veggies. They're too practical, I want pretty!

If you have no flower beds yet, that's all the more reason to have big pots of flowers everywhere. You need something to make your new house pretty. Treat yourself, honey.

If you haven't found them yet, see Trudi's site wintersown.org (she offers free seeds for wintersowing) and also the FAQs at the top of page 1 of the forum. There's also a wintersowing seed exchange where you'll find frequent offers for free seeds in exchange for just postage.

Val, I can guarantee that you won't get any hate mail from wintersowers. I've been hanging out here for nearly 5 years, and quite a few folks have been around longer than that. We're friends, and we want you to succeed. We welcome newcomers (actually we entice unsuspecting victims like yourself).

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQs

Hi, Nancy Drew (love the name--I collect first editions or publications circa 1930s),

I have looked at the upside down tomato devices with some curiosity. I have raised beds and earth grow boxes for my tomatoes, which I just love. I don't see why the beans wouldn't work upside down, especially if you are doing pole beans.

My concern with the upside down version is creating contraptions to hang them from. An addition on the back of our house is the right height, but I'd be afraid of ruining the gutters or eaves with the weight of the containers.

To combat the slug problem, I ordered Sluggo, which I am going to use with diligence this year. I am afraid the beer traps just didn't get enough of the slugs. I know Sluggo won't do anything for earwhigs; I have to make newspaper traps for them. My kids like the beer traps, though, because they can fish out the slugs and squish them or pour salt on them. Ewww. I think my 2 year old learned to count to ten last summer by collecting slugs in this manner. Bleh.

We had a very wet spring and early summer in the Fox Valley, and I have never had slugs or earwhigs like I did last year. Between sharing garden produce and our famer's market, I will be okay if I can't grow the beans. It is fun to keep trying, and beans are a crop the kids like to grow.

cheers,
Nora Belle

Hi, Val,

Sorry to learn about the negative mail you received. SCM is a hot topic and a hot button issue. When you have people who are passionate, committed, well informed, and intelligent, there is bound to be clashes of ideology and personality. However, as other long-time CSM posters noted, in the early years of Gardenweb, some of the exchanges on CSM were much more heated to put it mildly.

Also, I think some infrequent posters just post comments in the forum to create negative energy and have no intention of learning or growing as a composter; they just want to stir the pile as it were(sorry if that's a pun).

As I said before, I have learned so much from many of CSM "old timer" posters, who often debate with each other, and I see the CSM forum as an excellent resource. I would google posts from a long-time gardenweb member whose screen name was Gonefishin. He passed away last year, but he posted many helpful, caring, and wonderful things in the CSM, vegetable, and tomato forums particularly.

cheers,
Nora Belle

Nora Belle: Yes, I've followed the SCM for several years too. I do learn a lot there. We all miss Bill and his wonderful compost pictures.

For the best results with Sluggo, start treating your beds in spring as soon as the soil temp hits 40 degrees. That's when slugs become active. I try to use it 2 (or 3) times before I plant out my wintersown seedlings, depending on weather. I've had pretty good success this way.

Karen

Thanks, Karen, for the Sluggo advice. I never considered slugs an issue in Wisconsin; they certainly look nothing like the things I've see out West.However, the little sluggers devoured my lupine and poppy seedlings and endless summer hydrangeas last year (in addition to green beans). I did not start setting out slug bait until the summer, which sounds like I was too late. I will start early as you suggest.

This is one of the things I love about gardening. I always get a second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. chance. :)

cheers,
Nora Belle

Well!!!!! Welcome you fellow bag of dirt, er soil, em, brown stuff! :O) :O) Glad you could drop by!

As you well know, I'm a flower and ornamental plant nut but every year we do plant a little veggie garden. It's DH's patch to tinker with. Nothing serious. I mean, how serious a gardener can he be when he lets the broccoli flower and then asks why there's no broccoli?!?!

For root crops such as radishes and carrots and such, I'd plant directly in the ground but if you do stuff like squash and pumpkins, peas, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, etc., you can certainly winter sow those. I like to grow pumpkins every year. Their flowers are actually so pretty and the foliage is nice too.

As per the S&C Forum, I think there's still a great bunch of folks over there including Karen and you. There's such a wealth of information and entertainment within that community of gardeners. We have much to learned from each other and not only have I had lessons in soil and compost from that forum, but lessons in tolerance, patience and biting my tongue.

Welcome to the wonderful world of winter sowing. :O)

Hi guys!

I'll admit to really skimming this thread, so apologies if I repeat. (Although I did catch some of the comments about the SCM forum, and have to say while I read voraciously over there on a daily basis, I'm still a little afraid to post, lol! I've been getting a bit better though!)

Anyway, Val, of the vegetables you asked about, I wouldn't say you picked the wrong ones. I've successfully WSown cukes, radishes and garden peas (don't think I've done sugar snap, but I'm not too clear on pea categories so who knows, lol?). I've also done carrots, lettuces, spinach, eggplant, peppers, onions, and beets.

I did try beans, but they pretty much just rotted, so I just direct sow those now. One of the few things that I do not winter sow. Actually, beans may be the ONLY thing I don't wintersow!

I do think that I saw that you made a comment about being nervous to WS tomatoes? Don't be. I wintersow tomatoes every year with great success. They may be smaller when planted out than store-bought or indoor-sown seedlings, but they catch up quickly! Be brave, lol!

Good luck, and have fun!
:)
Dee

Dee, Would you tell us about your WS onions and when you did them please?

soonergrandmom, I usually have my WSing records right here next to me at my desk, and I looked for them when I posted above and they're not here! I can't imagine where they went to (they've been sitting here for a year, lol!) but I will find them tomorrow and let you know when I sowed my onions.

:)
Dee

Hi Val
Good to see you wandered off from the SCM forum. Although I'm in a zone warmer than yours, yes you can WS tomatoes, and peppers too, but you would want to wait til its a little warmer out there. One thing that really surprised me was WS basil, I really didn't expect it to germinate, because basil is usally not cold tolerant (at least the plants aren't) but those little things grew just fine by WS them.

As for peas, I usually sow snap peas, but I just plant them around the traditional St. Patricks day, but sometimes they haven't gotten planted til early April. They do fine, then when they are done I plant cucumbers and its late enough in the season for them to still produce before frost and yet I don't get inundated with the cucumber beetles and such.

As for the nasty email from the other forum, LOL, I got one a few months ago from the Hot Topics forum, and at first I got angry, then laughed over it. Those of us that compost, are very strong minded people, but the bottom line is everyone will do it to how it fits into their own lives and reading the forums over there gives alot of good info. When I first signed on to GW, there were so many wonderful people full of info, but most have disappeared. I miss Bill too, he was such a nice person, and so full of info, he would actually take the time to explain in detail how he went about both composting and his gardening.

Alberta

Karen -

I love flowers! You might remember from the SCM forum that I don't really have any flower beds right now because of all the hard scape I need to put in but some flower pots all around the outside this year would be VERY nice. Thanks for the idea. I don't know how you can live without veggies though LOL.

Norabelle -

I too remember Gone Fishin' Bill. Loved reading his posts. And I agree, there is a lot to learn on that forum. So many different ways to accomplish the same objective is fascinating to me. Pack in down, loosen it up, wet it thoroughly, too much moisture, poo in, poo out...it's great!

Tiffy!! (this "bag o' dirt" is wavin'!)

lessons in tolerance, patience and biting my tongue.

I soooo need the biting my tongue lesson LOL. Back to the winter sowing, I'm thinking I just need to write down what I plan to have in my garden and then try and figure out what the best things from that list are wintersowable. I'm leaning towards the marigolds right now. I like to have a few around the garden as companion plants.

Dee -

That's good to know about the cucumbers. I might go ahead and try them since I already have the seed. I might also try some tomatoes - it's only the cost of a seed packet, right? Thanks for the encouragement. And what a GREAT idea about keeping records! I think that's something I will definitely use.

Alberta -

but you would want to wait til its a little warmer out there

Could you tell me a little more about this? I've seen hints of it in other posts. Are you saying for veggies that you should wait until closer to spring to start winter sowing them? How much closer? I did read the FAQ's (I swear) but I think everything is starting to swim together in my head now. Is there some place I'm missing to read that separates out when different things need to be winter-sown or is it just a learning experience?

Thanks for all the great info from everyone. What a great learning experience this is going to be -

Val

Val,

Marigolds are very winter sowable. I sow the Tagetes ones every year to fill containers on my deck. I suck at containers but when I put Marigolds in them they do great. Here's a photo of a just released Monarch with the Tagetes last August.

{{gwi:344891}}

I have been reading with baited breath. I have a lot of veg. to try and this is my first year WS. It did occur to me that I have a lot of seed and limited space. I could try whatever I have a lot of and if it doesn't come up in time just direct sow. Does that sound right? I also have very limited space so I only need some to make it.

Val: Since Soilguy posted a continuation of your thread, maybe you need to post a link to this thread, show those folks that they do scare off newcomers.

Karen

Okay, I found last year's records (seems my lovely teens were at my computer, knocked them to the floor under the desk, and decided that the papers could just as easily live UNDER the desk as on it, so they left them there for me to find on hands and knees this morning. But I digress....)

Last year I sowed:

Onions - March 17th
Cukes - one kind April 18th, 2nd kind May 16th (equally good results)
Beets - one sowing Feb 18th, another sowing March 17th (both good results)
Carrots - April, but what day???
Peas - agh! No record! What happened? But probably Feb or March
Tomatoes - April 18th
Spinach - Feb 17th
Scallions - April 5th
lettuce - one sowing Feb 16th, another March 17th (equally good results)
Eggplant - May 18th
Peppers - May 18th
Basil, dill, parsley, - April 5
Arugula, thyme - May 18th

I don't have any set method for why I sow when I do. I do try to wait on some things in general, such as tomatoes are sown later than lettuce, but as far as the specific day, I pretty much look in my seed box and think, okay, what do I feel like sowing today?

Also, you'll see some things sown one month, with a second sowing a month or more later. It's not some grand experiment. I just got to thinking about it and realized I didn't sow enough, so when I got around to it I would sow more. Interestingly enough, I had pretty similar results with the differently-timed sowings.

As far as records, I only record how many seeds, what day sown, what day germinated, and how many germinated. And to be honest, I only started keeping records so I could help out on threads like these, lol. I wanted to contribute to this board, which helped me so much, and since I have an awful memory, I thought I'd better start writing it down, lol. But it has helped me too, so I'm glad I started keeping records.

Val, if you are interested in marigolds, I have tremendous success with them, and they are really one of my new favorite flowers. I WS several different varieties and wouldn't be without them.

:)
Dee

Whew! I got nervous reading posts until the one from "diggerdee" (THANKS DD)because I have, in my newbie enthusiasm, already sewn 3 kinds of tomatoes, green beans, peas, zucchini, green peppers, and tons of flowers. This is my first year and I figure I'll learn a lot..one way or the other. Very exciting.

Isn't it odd how one forum will have a completely different attitude from another? Isn't this one just so amazingly laid-back? Over here, no one freaks out if someone insists on trying something weird, and there certainly isn't any insistence on following the exact tough-love method that Trudi uses! I used to visit the soil forum frequently. I guess I decided I'd learned enough to make it on my own, and didn't need to read the big arguments. Also, on the subject of adding sand to clay, I know I'm right, and I don't need to argue about it. :)

You know, last year I noticed on the Tomato forum that Gonefishin' wasn't posting, and I worried. I'm really sad to hear that Bill passed away. He was one of those people whose goodwill clearly showed in his posts. And his level of detail really helped me understand his methods.

Karen, bite your tongue about that link! No need to go inviting trouble to a happy place! Besides, those who scare off newcomers would not change just because it's been said "out loud".

BTW, the pictures of your gardens give me hope for mine (I'm starting a new flower garden this spring).

I start to type lots of things over "there", but most of the time I delete them instead.

Alberta -

but you would want to wait til its a little warmer out there

Could you tell me a little more about this? I've seen hints of it in other posts. Are you saying for veggies that you should wait until closer to spring to start winter sowing them? How much closer? I did read the FAQ's (I swear) but I think everything is starting to swim together in my head now. Is there some place I'm missing to read that separates out when different things need to be winter-sown or is it just a learning experience

Val since you are 2 zones cooler than I am, I go would go with Dee's approximates in your area. The one exception for me would be beets, since I won't WS those but plant them directly because each seed will produce more than one plant and for me its easier to thin them while in the ground than to try and get these big hands into a jug or other container. Gee that didn't make much sense now that I just reread what I wrote, LOL, but I think what I mean is if its easier for me to direct sow and not WS things, such as peas, beans, beets, carrots, cukes than I just won't do it. Hope that helps some.

Alberta

Tiffy - Beautiful picture of a Monarch. It's like it waited there for it's close-up. I had to look up Tagetes :-)

Karen - I'll let you do the pointing. I'm sure someone would take it as me tooting my own horn. LOL

Dee - I was reading through your list and something struck me. Some of your veggies you have listed as sowing May 18th. In zone 5 they say our last frost date is May 15th. So I'm curious to know why you "winter-sowed" them in pots or jugs when couldn't you have just sown them into the garden? I think I'm getting more and more confused by this process. LOL

Stage-rat - Over here, no one freaks out if someone insists on trying something weird. I know just what you mean! I can sense a more laid back atmosphere here and it's quite relaxing. Over there I sometimes feel I have to justify my questions or make excuses for my ignorance. I don't feel that need here in asking questions to expand my knowledge.

Greenbean - Besides, those who scare off newcomers would not change just because it's been said "out loud". And it might provoke a hate email :-)

Alberta - easier to thin them while in the ground than to try and get these big hands into a jug or other container. Made perfect sense to me! I'm 5'10 and wear a size 10 shoe so you can imagine how big my hands are. Luckily, my husband was not intimidated! LOL

What a great place this is. No one is making me feel stupid for my lack of knowledge or experience. You guys are great! I picked up some potting soil this weekend and I have several milk jugs cleaned out and ready to go. I just have to go back to the local grocery store and get some more (different) seeds.

Thanks - Val

OT....
I'm 5'8 and wear a 10 shoe too, so I'm glad you understood what I meant about these big hands, LOL
I've got a grandson that is 16, 6'5" and 270lbs. We tend to grow them big up here. Have fun Val, thats what WS is all about.

Alberta

I think, in our effort to help newcomers, we often confuse them with conflicting information. Some folks here have been WSing for years. For me, this is my 4th year.

The thing is, many of us just repeat what has worked best for us in past years. I think Trudi sows everything in winter with good results. I've done that and had tenders sprout then die in later frost, so now I, like many others, wait until spring for their area to sow them. Maybe the difference is that Trudi is in zone 7 and I'm in zone 6. Maybe it's wind factors or sun exposure (microclimate) in our respective yards. Who knows?

Thing is, I think beginners have to jump in and start somewhere. I tried to follow bakemom's routine and advice, since she lives fairly close to me and seemed and expert to me at the time! I think a good safe rule of thumb is to start with perennials and hardy annuals in winter and tender annuals and tender perennials around spring. Many follow a "tough love" policy - once the jug is sown it stays outside now matter what. I prefer to bring tender sprouts into my unheated garage for overnight frost and this has worked well for me.

So, bottom line, sow some seeds as you see fit. Enjoy the process, this IS fun if you let it be so. You will have some seeds that don't sprout at all, I still do. The loss costs me a buck or two for a pack of seeds. No big deal because I get so many wonderful plants for pennies. And it's fun. Enjoy.

Karen

Hi Val!

I'm going to try it too. Posters here are so nice, even offered me free seeds!!! (thank you so much floodthelast & token!)

I'm sorry you got an angry email bec. of that thread. I love the humor & knowledge on the CSM forum but some posters do have a hair-trigger temper, seems like.

diggerdee, thanks for sharing that list; very useful for me since I'm in z6 too.

I'm going to use the mostly the bottom halfs of milk cartons since that's what we consume a lot of.

Now I better go buy stamps...

--aj--

Alberta - Us big girls have to stick together!

Karen - The confusion is totally my own doing not you guys. I have a tendency to analyze things to death. Add in the fact that I'm anal retentive and you get a person who is insecure in starting new things. You are so right, I just need to plunge in and start doing. I am getting better about starting new things, I guess it comes with age and learning to relax, retirement helped too :-)

I went to the store today and bought more seeds. Oy vey! Mostly veggies, some parsley and a few flowers. Thanks for the encouraging post because it's exactly what I need to do.

Hey AJ - Didn't know you were hanging around here too. (wavin') We'll learn together, shall we?

Val

Well, I hope that posting my experiences doesn't confuse things even more, but since I'm in zone 5 and WS a lot of veggies, I thought I would share my results.

Beans and carrots are about the only things I direct sow. The beans because they need warm soil or they will rot, and the carrots because they direct sow so well, and I don't want to fool with transplanting a zillion tiny seedlings. (like Alberta I have big hands, LOL)

Broccoli WS 2/5 Germ 2/28 Transplanted 4/22

Canteloupe WS 5/31 Germ 6/21 Trans 7/11 (Will start these earlier this year, since I only got two melons last year. They were just getting going when the evenings turned cool)

Cucumbers WS 5/31 Germ 6/8 Trans 7/11 (This year will WS in late April or direct sow in early May)

Lettuce WS usually late Jan/early Feb, germ in early March, trans late April

Peas, Sugar Snap - last year I direct sowed on 3/27, thought they had rotted, so I WS on 4/14. They BOTH germ. around 4/25. Trans. the WS ones on 5/3 and started harvesting by mid May

Peppers - This is about the only thing I still sow indoors. Not because they won't germinate, but because our growing season is too short to get a harvest that way.

Tomatoes - WS 5/7 germ. varied - early to mid May. Everything (including a few indoor sown ones) was trans. 5/31

Herbs - Basil is WS in mid to late April. Everything else is done late January through March. All of the herbs did well for me except Chives. Maybe that's one that should be sown later. Not sure on that though.

Hope this information helps!

Bonnie

Good gracious Bonnie! I hope you had all that in a Word document that you could copy and paste. Lot of typing! BUT...Much appreciated! I'm copying it all to a document to my computer so I can study it. Will be great to compare from. Thanks ever so much!

Val

I did chives in January and they did great. Sown Jan 8, sprouted Mar 23. They make for a pretty, long lasting spring flower, too. This was in their 2nd year.

Common chives
{{gwi:344893}}

Karen

Val, you said:

"In zone 5 they say our last frost date is May 15th. So I'm curious to know why you "winter-sowed" them in pots or jugs when couldn't you have just sown them into the garden? I think I'm getting more and more confused by this process. LOL"

Sorry, didn't mean to confuse. I think Karen is right - so many of us do things so many different ways, it can be intimidating.

I am VERY laid-back about my WSing. I might decide on the spur of the moment to sow a few containers at any given moment I'm at home. Then, I decide while looking through my seed box what I'm going to sow at that given moment. Again, the only "rule" I follow is to do veggies later than earlier. Later is relative. I WS so much - usually about 225 containers - that I tend to sow my perennials and annuals first, and then my veggies (well, except for cold-hardy veggies like peas, carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach - those I will do early).

So, yes, I sowed my warm-season veggies in May, but that is basically because that is when I got around to it, lol! I didn't say to myself, "I have to wait until mid-May to sow these". I was just still sowing and since those are things that I would sow "later" rather than earlier, they just got put at the end of the line, and that's when they got done. Nothing to do with calendar dates, frost dates, or anything else that practical or logical, lol. Just had to do with when I could get to them!

Oh, and one last thing - I hardly ever direct sow (I think green beans are the only thing I do) because I like the control that the jugs provide. Seeds don't get washed away, critters don't get the seedlings, and I have more time to plan where things go. That's why I still use containers as late as May.

So, yes! Stop over-thinking and jump in, for goodness sake! The water's fine!

AJ and Barbie, glad my list was of some help. But - to everyone - remember, as Mr. Gibbs says in "Pirates of the Carribean", they're really more like guidelines!

:)
Dee

Thanks everyone - you've been very patient and helpful. I took Karen's advice and jumped in. I planted 3 half gallon milk jugs with some green bean seeds I had. Once I looked at them I realized they were the wrong ones anyway so I decided to go ahead and try them. I've still got some containers left to try for the other stuff and I'm going to do even more once I get more "jugs".

And I started a winter sowing "diary" so that I'll know better what to try next year. You guys are enablers, you know that?

Val

Val: They're all enablers! I haven't been the same since I started on here two weeks ago.

Enablers? Nah - we are simply helpful gardeners!

Hey Val - my first year WSing, I jumped in with four feet and wintersowed EVERYTHING!! Best year ever - my garden was chock-a-block full and bee-yoo-ti-ful! Of course, it was a very mild winter that year (2001-2002)....

Since then, I've modified my sowing times somewhat. Since you're worried about tomatoes, why not just try a few using the WS method? I usually do my tomatoes in March; they don't really start doing anything until the soil warms up a bit, so sowing them later (like Dee suggests) should be fine too.

These are my last year's tomatoes -

When I *finally* got them planted out in mid-June:

{{gwi:344895}}

One week later:

{{gwi:344897}}

Another two weeks later:

{{gwi:344899}}

And one of my first fruit:

{{gwi:344901}}

Don't be scared - give it a shot!

PV

Who?! Us?! Enablers?!

:)
Dee

PV - that's a great looking tomato! Oh...I am going to try it. I even went to the store today and bought a packet of seeds. Cherry tomato!

Now I think I know what I did...and it sounds ridiculous to actually put it into print but....I think I subconsciously bought seeds that if they don't work, I won't be disappointed.

I normally only plant vine type green beans to save space. What did I buy though....bush type. I vowed to never buy another cherry tomato 2 years ago because although everyone wanted me to plant them...no one would eat them. Since I can the regular ones I said I wasn't giving any more garden space to the cherry type. What did I buy to winter sow...yep...cherry type. Go figure! I'm scared to look at the other seeds I bought and to find out what I subconsciously did to myself. LOL

I think this year is just going to be a fun experimenting year for me.

Retiredprof - Looks like I'm in good company, eh? Seems there is a whole lot of us new kids on this block.

Val

Thanks to all of those who posted your records of date sowed, germinated and transplanted.
As a first time vegie WS'er I'm a little nervous about doing it "right" - plus I have a whole gardening group that I really want to show off WS'ing to -

Those records are very useful, I adjust to my zone, and it gives a place to start. After the first season I'm sure I'll be experimenting, and a lot more relaxed about it.

Today is my plant the tomatos seeds, they get planted first in my winter sowing. I am in 7 /6 zone and Truid's and mine seem to sprout the same day or a day apart.

Now I am very serious about compost and my tomatos. They winter sow very well, but do need protection if they sprout and come up before the last frost date. Prtection here is a unheated hay trailer or a towel place over a jug ( hot cap ) of those already planted out way early. Normally I carry them in for the night to the hay trailer on those chilly nights in April and out the next am till they get planted in the soil. This is about 30 plus jugs so they are kept together as a group so I dont miss any one. Think this year they should all have red caps on the jugs so I can glance and grab them up.

I to so miss Bill P. Gonefishing, he wrote such lovely directions for us and that golf ball picture always gave me a smile.

I do peppers but dont feel very strong on them with winter sowing seems they were late for me. I may do some in the house too cause love my frying peppers.

Squash, cukes and onions did great for me.

Lettuce is a must see green seed. They seem to pop out of the frozen soil in 7 days after you sow them.

Never had luck winter sowing peas. But not good with peas it seems either.

ML