1. I wouldn't. The snow is protecting them from the low temperatures. It acts like insulation. You've still got some time before you see lots of sprouts.

2. No. As long as you have 3-4" of soil, you should be fine. Just make sure they have enough headroom when the start growing. Planting out when they have their second set of leaves alleviates that worry too.

3. As long as it drains wellm doesn't dry out quickly, and doesn't have too many large chunky pieces of bark, you should be fine. I make my own soil from random bits too. The biggest issue is staying too wet or too dry.

1. leave the snow alone
2. what token said
3. no cheap soil. Either go soiless or use good quality potting soil.

Have fun!

I agree with token and bakemom mostly. I do think that drainage is the issue with cheap soil. Some of the bags of cheap stuff I bought were just clay and killed off my sprouts. Most of the cheap stuff I mix with equal parts of the more expensive stuff or vermiculite or potting mix then I get much better results.

Does perlite keep in the moisture? (If just peat and perlite, I would think so?)

So, since I've already sown some containers that are no more than 2" deep with soil, should I re-do them? Are they screwed?

Perlite helps with drainage the peat holds in moisture. It just depends on what you planted or when you plant them out. Things I plant out at first leaf stage didn't need that much soil. Things that sat around till I got to them hit the bottom.

I only use soilless medium, never garden soil.

Karen