HI deepti,
I made my set-up before I found out about the jug method. However, I wouldn't care to do the jugs personally because I have kids that would mess with them too much.
I have a garden bed (with nice loose soil) that is next to a lattice wall, facing south. If I had a camera, I would just take a picture, but I don't so I'll try to explain it.

Here is what I did:

The idea is to have strong individual seedlings in individual cups to plant out after frost. I have used cups many times, and love them for my purposes.

First I stapled sheet plastic to the lattice (about 2 feet up the wall) to make a back wall for my "greenhouse", and cut slits in it for ventilation.
I scooped back the soil to make a recessed bed where I could line up my cups in rows, with the top of the cups sitting about 1/2 inch above the soil line.
I used clear plastic 9 oz party cups from Wal-mart (80 for less than 2 bucks). Use scissors to snip the bottom edge in 3 places for drainage.
At first I was using cheap potting soil to fill the cups, then I got lazy and just scooped the garden soil into the cups. It's working great for me, but it depends on what kind of soil you have, I think.
I labeled the cups under the rim on the outside with a Sharpie marker.
I sowed 3-4 seeds in each cup. As they grow, I will thin to the strongest seedling.
As I set rows of cups in, I pushed a little soil in between to stabilize and insulate the cups.
I watered them well!
I mulched them with 1/2 inch thick layer of dried grass that I raked from my lawn for the project.
I stapled a second sheet of plastic (this is my top flap) to cover them. I rolled the edge of the plastic and stapled it along the top edge of the sheet that forms the back wall (the sheet stapled to the lattice). I left plenty of plastic on each end to allow me to close it completely for cold nights.
I cut slits in the top flap.
So the top flap angles down about 45 degrees to form the cover. It is stapled at the top, has slits for ventilation, and is weighted at the bottom with 4 bricks about 18" apart.
I left the cover down until I had germination, but I had to watch it closely at first to monitor the temperature on the warm days we had. One time they baked at 120 F for a couple of hours. They all germinated in the next couple of days, though! You'll have to determine how many vents you need.
Now that everything has sprouted, I just water in the morning, lift the flap, and tuck it into the lattice to keep it out of the way. Very low tech, but it works. I'll improve it next year.
At night (or on cold days) I pull the plastic down and weight it to keep the temperature up a little. They have survived temps into the 20s, even when the sprouts themselves froze.
I sowed in the middle of February and everything is up:
rudbeckia, gaillardia, echinacea, jupiter's beard, salvia, shastas, mallow, hollyhock, geranium, cupid's darts, and some others I can't think of right now. I grew 9 of each variety (so I could share with my mom and sis).

I hope this is easy enough to understand. I really, really wish I had a camera! Let me know if you have any questions. I will definitely do it this way next year, with a couple of refinements, maybe. It was really easy, and is easy to monitor and maintain.
Tracy

You must monitor the moisture more closely than with jugs, because any condensation is not dripping back into the cups.

Tracy, I thought your description was really good! I have decided to adopt some of your ideas for my main south-facing front of the house bed next winter. This was my first year WS and I've had some success w/ the 2L bottle method but for the teeny size of my lot I think your method might be more advantageous. Keep on with the good work!

Tracy,
Way cool! That description would make a technical writer proud!

Some questions. Why do you need to water? is it because of the 45 degree angle?

When you transplant, how do you slip the seedling direct from cup into ground?

I'm really lazy, and trying to think of a way that I can sink the cups in the ground -- in the position where the transplants would go, and then just wiggle them out after frost. If we slice off the cup bottoms, and then sink them upside down (or just use cylinders?), then we could wiggle them out after frost. Would this work?

It would be not quite direct sowing because the seeds and the soil they rest on would be rimmed by the cylinder. If the cups/cylinders are placed some distance apart (in the transplanting positions), then covering them with a plastic sheet greenhouse may be impractical, but we could do the saran wrap method with vents, leaving enough room at the top of the cylinder for the sprouts to grow.

Thoughts, anyone?
deepti

I'm glad I was able to describe it in such a way that you could picture it!
As for the questions:
I water because my soil is pretty sandy and dries out faster than a planting mix. Also, I give my seedlings sun and open air during the day, so there is evaporation. I just give them a quick shower in the morning.

To transplant, I just turn the cup upside down and gently dump it into my hand. If the soil is decent, it retains the cup shape pretty well and I just put that in a small hole in the ground. The seedlings don't experience much shock, as there is very little root disturbance. With my sandy soil, I'll just invert the cup almost directly into the planting hole.

I've done the "sort of direct sow" method with small paper dixie cups that have the bottom removed and are slit all the way up the side. The cup provides a rim to hold water and stays together long enough to keep the seeds in place and get them going. Once the paper dixie cup is sunk in the ground and planted, I invert a clear plastic party cup over it.(cut the bottom so it is a flap). Then you can pile up soil around the rim as deep as you want to hold it in place. Even use little rocks and mulch. It helps maintain moisture and temperature, but those little cups will cool off significantly at night, so they don't offer as much protection as a larger setup or jugs. Once the seedlings are established you can just remove the paper cups (water first to make sure they are soft and pliable).

I've used that method for sowing just a couple of weeks before last frost, to get a little earlier jump on germination. You could try it sooner than that, though! It's not much of a head start, but preferable, for me, to true direct sowing because in Colorado every little bit helps. I did that with zinnias and morning glories last year.

Happy Sprouting! :)

It's great that you've already experimented with different containers! I guess you've been ws'ing for a while!

i like the idea of putting the clear plastic cups on top, with soil etc. holding them in place. Sound like less work than saran wrap, and gives more space to the seedlings too!

I'm wondering if using styrofoam or plastic cups instead of paper dixie might hold the warmth in better, allowing one to use this method to ws even in january? Would it be harder to get them out the ground at transplant time, even with a slit on one side? I guess I'm wondering why you chose paper dixie.

deepti

Actually, this is my first year wintersowing! I developed my plan earlier this year when I saw weed seeds sprouting under a piece of plastic on the ground in my yard. I thought, why not perennials? Then I found out about wintersowing with jugs. It was too late, and I didn't have the jugs, anyway. So far, this setup is working great! I've sown seeds in cups for years, though, because I've always started them very early and let them get to a good size indoors waiting for my last frost date.

I used the paper dixies because I just needed something to keep the seeds in place, basically. You could try with anything, though.
Good luck!
Trace

Thanks so much! I'll try the new method later this spring or fall since I just ws'd a bunch of stuff. Will post my results when I have them.

Good luck to you too with experimentation!
deepti