Token
I have been following all your posts. You are amazing!!!!!

LOL. This is my last year doing this much wintersowing. I tested the waters last year and dove in head first this year. I've still got dozens of seed packets I haven't even opened yet. The next rainy day, I'll be outside direct sowing a lot of stuff. Digging holes is already getting old.

I plan to direct sow also...

What are you going to direct sow?
I am curious cause I want to DS as well....

I am thinking maybe my abundance of marigold seeds and some cosmos. I want to add them in front of the veggies for some color etc.

Karen

I direct sow cosmos every year. I just wait until all chances of frost are passed. I tried marigolds, but they need to be covered slightly to germinate. Zinnias work great too, after the frost. Rudbeckia will germinate. You just have to keep the soil moist.

Datura is one of my favorites to direct sow. I don't have much luck wintersowing it.

Neat, token, that you're getting some planted out. I still have enough containers for annuals.

I think I went overboard though, but it's good to have a test lab out there to see what is going to work and what I can do better.

I'm planning to DS some poppies and a mix I made consisting of lupine, daisies, bachelor's button and corn poppies in the front bed, but I'll have to have the soaker hose hooked up to keep it moist. That bed really dries out fast, really dry esp 2-3' against the foundation whereas all the rest of the ground is really moist right now. I wouldn't unless I felt I have to at least have it ready.

I love living my late winter->early spring through token!!

More photos please:)

BTW - I have French Marigold (Little Devil maybe) that reseeds profusely. I'll send you some if you want. It was supposed to be in a west bed but it's never grown there. Crazy winds blow it south and east. My neighbors to the east just assume any volunteers, French Marigold or otherwise, are from me:))

I am sort of hoping my African Marigolds are not as profuse.

You want photos? LOL.

How about some reseeders? It's either bee balm or salvia subrotunda. I'm not sure yet. I scattered them both in this area. It does look more like salvia, but the color is close to bee balm.

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And the peach tree is blooming. You can see my wintersown containers and the hoophouse in the background.

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Wintersown butterfly bush is putting out lots of new growth.

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Token,

I do admit to plant envy - with breaking my ankle last year, I fell behind (no jokes, pls!) and am playing catch-up this year with more WSing. I've been pleasantly surprised at what survived the year when I didn't get out to nurture my WS sprouts...

You've put an incredible amount of work into all of this!

Cheers, Ann

thanks token for the direct sow seeds info. I did not think of datura, I may need to buy some of those to direct sow.

Cosmos should work great. I have a big pack of them someone sent me that are red. I prefer pink but red will do...

Karen

I do love all of your posts, token! I have direct sown alyssum and larkspur, and I plan to direct sow some cosmos and annual poppies (as soon as I find the seed packet I have in mind!). I sowed the alyssum on Monday and I already have sprouts today! Hurray! I also have four WS containers full of alyssum sprouts, too. The area where I direct sowed it is where I have hundreds of daffodils coming up. I didn't look forward to trying to plant out seedlings amid the daffodils, so direct sowing seemed like a solution.

Token, in another thread you said to plant out perennials when you see the second leaves. Do they need to be full-fledged leaves or just sprouting leaves? TIA for any clarification for this eager newbie. LOL.

Lisa

I'm very frustrated. I should be seeing germination but with one particular soil I used, I see NO germination AT ALL. I switched to a "home made" soil a few weeks ago and all that germinated.
I spent a lot of money on very specialized seeds, and I will be very very bummed if the soil is causing issues (which it seems it is).

girlgroupgirl -

I have always made my own soil and last year, I had quite a few jugs "fail". I tossed the soil anywhere and found volunteers like mad.

Not sure what to do differently, if germination seems to fail, but adding the jug soil to low spots in my beds seemed to help:)) Seems like I gave up too early. I had added some hosta jugs to total shade and they did finally sprout.

Lisa, the second set of leaves are the first true leaves. That's when I plant out. It's not the seedling leaves which are usually rounded or arched, but the ones that resemble what the mature plant will have. I do break this rule sometimes, depending on my own inclinations and the weather.

GGG, I made my own soil almost exclusively this year. I mixed things and screened soil and I've had pretty good germination so far. It has been warmer here than in your area (odd, I know). So don't give up on them yet. I still have plenty of containers out there with nothing but dirt.

I second Token's suggestion. I planted datura seeds in jugs on Jan 1. Kept watching the jugs, week after week. Nada.

When I took the tops off yesterday, I saw 2 tiny datura sprouts - it took nearly three months. I'll bet more datura seeds will sprout in a few days. I've never grown datura from seed so don't know if they are slow, or if germination was slower than usual because this was an unusually cold winter.