Jeane
one of my cats is also declawed and he is most excellent hunter, even if he spent most of his life before me growing in a condo...
beautiful pictures and your plants look great. Have hard time identifying that plant in the middle.
I always have one lesson from which I never learn- do not plant so much...

what a lovely yard! I have learned that I am a plant addict.....i winter sowed over 200 containers yet I spent $50 this afternoon on things i don't have.that's not counting the other $100 plus dollars iv'e spent. sh..don't tell. sigh....plus, i havent planted out half of what i grew. i planted lots out today and planting out lots tomorrow. My oldest moved out, next one just graduated friday, next one is out running around, last one went to church camp today, hubby out searching for deer he can't shoot for 4 months. I can't decide to jump for joy at the quiet or cry cuz it's so quiet. i'll go play with my plants. they are quiet also.
Tanya

Jeane, your garden pictures are lovely. I really enjoyed looking at them. You have a wonderful place and you are decorating it beautifully...very far from boring. Please share more as they grow. Elvis looks like he has the life!
What did I learn? Well, not to plant every seed in every package is the biggie. Also to be more selective of what I plant and to pay better attention to their needs in relation to what I can give them. A sad thing I learned is that I can't winter sow the annuals I like to grow so that they will bloom early enough to enjoy. This part of Maine stays too cool too long and gets too cool too soon for most annuals. Fortunately my alyssums which I need the most of are doing fine although still small so I can ws them with success. And this has been the best winter I have survived in a long time thanks to this forum of friends and winter sowing!!!
Bonny

Jeane, Beautiful flowers, beautiful yard.

Keep posting pictures as the plants progress- we never get bored with photos.

Karen

Lovely garden! Yes, I agree with above, please share more photos again.

Trudi

gardener want to be?? gardener you are!!!

Beautiful pictures and we have the same cat!! I thought my cat ran away to live with you - they look exactly alike.
Does she watch tv like mine does?

{{gwi:61712}}

Carrie

Jeane,
What lovely pictures. The more I see, the more I'm encouraged. This will be my first year to WS and I'm so excited! I love hearing everyone's tips/mistakes/etc. I learn so much from all of you!
Stephanie

My husband & I love the turtles!

What have I learned?...
- Start earlier, I got side tracked this winter because I started a new job and didn't start until April
- That birds and squirrels like the seedlings as much as I do, why else would they take them or chew through them
- Hubs used to think that seeds were 'silly' and that I should just buy the plants, now he knows that it works and picks things out from catalogues that he likes
- That those that WS, esp. those in this forum, are enablers :) lol!

Thanks for including some pics!

I learned that I love the "tending babies" part and like a whole lot less the " finding/clearing" room to plant all these sprouts part! I STILL have some that need to go somewhere. And there ARE some places where they could go - - I just have to do yet SOME MORE weeding, which I am so bored with!

I learned that next year when I choose seeds, I need to focus on two things: 1) perennials to keep more areas covered and less likely to fill with weeds and 2)plant HEIGHT - - I placed an order with T&M for the next WS season recently, and I made myself use the height search engine to find shorter plants. I find I am attracted to the 24 - 36 inch plus variety and have little to plant in the front of the beds!

Nan, I wound up the same way! I have all these tall plants and nothing for "down front". My flowerbeds look a bit strange to say the least. And I'll have to move several perennials whose growth habit I didn't research well enough. Also, I should pay more attention to selecting plants for the spaces I have - almost everything I sowed was for sun (and I do have a lot of sunny spaces) but my shade garden was left practically bare! I had to go back and "spring sow" some things just to fill in. And, I should plan for a LOT more annuals - not all different kinds but enough of a chosen few to really make statements. Things are a little spotty here this year with a few of these and a few of those. Given the size of my flower beds and the distance from which they are viewed, I should be planting larger numbers of fewer varieties.

And last, yes...this DOES work. So get busy and put up the stakes and supports early cause you ARE going to have big, honkin' plants in the flowerbeds!!

I've learned that (I probably shouldn't have imposed on your thread with my picture....) and as far as sowing seeds:

I've learned this year that I still get sloppy with labeling containers. I start off with labels and then when I remove tops and hadn't labeled the bottom or inside, I didn't remember which top goes where. I have to remember to label the bottoms of my containers.

When doing styrofoam cups, remember to water more often.

I've learned after three years that certain flowers reseed so profusely, that I don't have to waste container space/soil on those - just wait until spring and move them where you want - that's only with reseeders you can count on.

I've learned that no matter how hard I try, I am terrible at sowing petunias so I stick with what I am good with - profusion zinnias and many other annuals.

Great thread!

Carrie

I learned:
Water early, as soon as I see sprouts. Don't put out annuals too early or they'll be killed by frost (I lost my first set of sunflowers to the late freeze). Don't plant tiny sprouts in the back where the dogs can get them, pot them up first. And don't plant violets in 6 inches of mulch or you won't see much of them. Oh, and don't give up too soon. I have a milk carton of columbines and I swear I only had two sprouts in there last week, today I saw about 10. My one geranium now has two sprouts and they're both growing really fast.

Jeane,

Your yard is beautiful! I loved looking at the pictures. Having turtles visit you for breakfast is so cool!

Ginger

Carrie--I loved looking at your cat. I don't know about the rules, etc. I just know I like seeing pictures, and yours is great. Elvis weighs 14 lbs now. He gained 3 lbs in the year and a half since I adopted him. He is a wonderful cat. I was hesitant to adopt a male, since I had always had females, but I couldn't have gotten a better friend. I love him.

Ginger, yes I love to watch the turtles that visit me for breakfast--there are usually five, but that morning only four showed up. Elvis, my cat, always lets me know when they have arrived so that I can take them out their bread. I have loads of birds in the yard also, I love it. The turtles are great, but a lot of nights, I am visited by racoons, possums, and once a fox. They turn on my motion detector lights--Elvis loves to watch them.

I am axiously awaiting all you newbies, like me, to show how your plants are growing. Maybe next year I will have a lot of blooms because I WS'd mostly periennals this year. That is the best lesson I learned. WS lots of annuals early so that I will have color soon in the Spring without having to buy annuals.

Jeane

Your gardens are lovely and the turtles coming over for breakfast is great! You both have beautiful cats and they really do look alike. This was my first year WS and I'm thrilled with the results. The main things I'm going to do differently next year are to sow FEWER seeds and find a better way to mark my containers. I'm still getting plants in the garden and in individual pots and will probably still be at it in Sept! lol Thank goodness for the ID forum because much of what I planted I couldn't read the label by the time it germinated.
Karyn

What great photos! Your garden is beautiful, and so tidy! Where are all the plastic containers? Are you sure you wintersowed at all? ;) I guess that's what my yard is supposed to look like? Yikes!

Here are some things I learned that I will try to put into practice next year:

--I think I may sow my earliest containers without moistening them for awhile, as putting them out early seems to lead to longer germination time. (My first container, done on the solstice, was probably the last to germinate. My boyfriend split his pile of columbine seeds with me. Mine were sown early, while he sowed his with about 2 weeks of cool nights left, and he had strong germination very quickly. I was really thinking about giving up on that container, but I finally started geting sprouts sometime in mid-May. I read mention of something similar with foxglove seeds. I'll toss containers out into the cold without moistening the dirt, and keep them dry with a cover until I'm ready.

- I also plan to have a relatively large container that I will not sow any seeds in. Then I can use every sprout as an example of what a WEED seedling looks like. I don't know when many of my real plants germinated--I kept records of when SOMETHING germinated, and it was usually weeds coming first.

- I am going to store my favorite containers and gather (and maybe prepare) more over the summer/fall, because the quest for containers took some time, including fishing in dumpsters in the cold. I will cram my garage to the rafters, so I can spend my winter time sowing. I spent too much time hunting for containers, and then trying to make do with hard-to-cut things, or even trying to un-crush jugs and bottles!

- If you make a "container retrieval device" for dumpsters, put a wrist-loop on it, so you can't drop it into the bottom of an almost-empty dumpster!

- I usually know which of the plants I sow are perennials or annuals, but I sowed a lot of different poppies and rudbeckia, and different species are one or the other. For such plants, I need to remember to indicate that on the label, so I get the annuals planted out first.

Jeane, what a great job you've done! Isn't it amazing what one woman can do by herself if you just keep at it? I'm glad you are enjoying your retirement and gardening! (Read your member page.)

I learned that transplanting while seedlings are small makes a stronger plant. We have been having temperatures warmer than usual. The ones planted early are bigger and held up well, the later ones struggle and are still smaller. Having deeper containers for planting so roots have more room is better than a small one where the roots are tangled up.Planting fewer seeds is a must, I have so many plantlets to grow that it becomes a chore to find a spot and water all of them, and I don't need 10 or 15 of everything.

Very nice! Looking good. Everything looks so tidy and plants look healthy.

I'm a first time WS'er, so I have a lot to learn, but still had plenty of success. I also planted quite a few perennials I'll have to wait to see flower until next year. I didn't understand that at first. I took some other posters' advice on the forum to summer sow a few perennials so I can see them bloom next year. I've got teeny hollyhock, penstemon, foxglove, and delphinium sprouts I hope to transplant at the end of summer.

I learned little sprouts are a lot tougher than they look. I won't do any peat pots next year because most sprouts did great at transplant and apparently their roots weren't disturbed by me at all. I will use a few peat pellets though for early sown perennials.

I probably planted too many varieties together in each container, which was confusing. However, I don't know if I will change that, as my containers are lasagna pans, which are quite roomy. Many if I cut down on seed varieties (yeah right), I can sow one or two varieties to each container.

What have I learned?

Don't bother WS marigolds and zinnias. Wait til warm weather, and they'll germinate in 2 days, and be ready to plant in 2 weeks.

Plant more California Poppies. They are the stars of my first WS year.

I'm sure there's much more, but this is all I can think of now.

jeane - I love the turtles! I have 1 eastern box turtle that comes up every spring to lay eggs, but that is the only time I see her.
What I've learned:
Plant more Alyssum
plant more poppies
Write down where I plant thing.
Don't let your master sheets blow away (Lost pg 2 of 4, thankfully I had entered it into my computer!)
I like using TP rolls in milk jugs. That worked well for me
Winter sowing is GREAT! And your garden is wonderful! Gardening keeps people young, so keep up the good work!
Maggie

Can't anyone ID the plant by the PVC pipe. I just looked at it and it is getting bigger. Looks real healthy also.

Jeane

Lessons learned: (1) This really works! (2) do a better job of protecting transplanted babies from slugs (3) plant fewer seeds per container (4) use jugs & sterlite containers, not aluminum pans (what a disaster!)

Jeane, I think that plant might be a pokeweed, but you should google some images to be sure. It has a strong taproot, although at that size it should be easy to dig out.

Stage Rat, thanks so much. I googled it and that is what it is. I will go right out and dig it up. I don't want those in my flower beds. I wish all my flowers looked that healthy though.

I forgot to mention lesons learned about which containers worked best for me. My favorite is the round containers that I get cakes or cookies in (also an excuse to buy them). I make newspaper pots, and they are so much easier to plant out than to try and get the babies out of a milk bottle or 2L bottle. I think the newspaper helps the soil also. I tear off the top as I am dropping them in the hole so that they don't wick away the water. All of mine that were planted that way are doing the best. Also, I put a small water bottle in the center and use plastic shower caps (16 for $1) from the dollar store on top of them--it works great. The second favorite is the 1/2 size stem table aluminum pans from Sam's. The shower cap fits on them also with a small water botter to hold it off the babies.
{{gwi:410275}}

I think I will learn many more lessons from the responses to this thread. Thanks again for helping me ID the plant. Also thanks to everyone who shared their lessons learned. It is a great help.

Jeane

I would love to have turtles in my yard...except my dogs would probably kill them....or well....I'll enjoy your picture instead.
This was my 4th year winter sowing and I'm still learning!
I learned that blue perm markers don't work as the black ones do. The blue ink faded and I had to guess at alot of my plants!
I'm also terrible about taking notes, so this year I started a blog. I'm hoping that it will motivate me to keep notes...so far so good!

Oooooh. Turtles. In the yard. Love them. So cute. This is not the kind that bites, isn't it?
Your garden is beautiful. I am glad you are having a good time filling it.

What have I learned this year? I learned that I had better listen to myself not to sow too many seeds in a container. I also will keep repeating, "I will not, I will not sow as many seeds again." lol.