Well, it's Winter Sowing, we start December 21st.

Trudi

Check out Trudi cool countdown gadget. I set up an igoogle page with all kinds of neat gadgets! It opens as another tab when I open my browser. How cool is that!
Maggie

Here is a link that might be useful: Trudi's Solstice Count down gadget

While I know there are others here who start a lot earlier than I do, I don't usually start putting out containers until the last week of January or so. I'm usually too busy with the holidays (including the birthday of almost every single member of my entire family, lol!) to think about WSing until after New Year's, and then I like to get some inside projects done in the next few weeks. THEN I start my WSing.

The exception would be anything that needs a warm-cold-warm stratification. These I would do earlier... if I would only ever think of it in time!

:)
Dee

there are certain seeds that need to be started warm cold warm period. I am about to start few now.
you might be interested to check out Tom Clothier site on germination requirements.

Last year it seemed that a lot of us started perennial seeds early and waited quite a while to put out the more tender annuals. I expect to do the same this year. I'll probably get started planting in early January. I think I did the first planting last year around New Year's Eve.

I'm not so clever as you who start those tricky seeds that need first one thing and then another. I probably couldn't keep them alive anyhow. I'm just longing for some nice hollyhocks and a ton of gaillardia to make dh happy (he LOVES those). Oh...and a row of larkspur about fifty feet long. And poppies. Gotta have poppies again this year. And nigella....so easy! And tithonia and massses of zinnias. And maybe this year Yvonne's salvia will work for me.

I already have loads of containers - ones saved from last winter and new ones too. And last weekend we picked up a couple of 50 pound sacks of Mark III (the BEST sterile mix for starting seeds). I'm READY!!

George - I might sow one or two containers on the solstice to get into the swing of things, but I usually start sowing the bulk of my containers sometime in January - perennials, that is, especially the ones that need some cold strat. Tender perens and hardy annuals will go out in February-March; the more tender annuals will go out in late March-April. Over the years, I've found that, for me, tomatoes and peppers do fine if started in March; even if I sow them earlier, they don't usually show themselves till around then anyway. A lot of it depends on gauging how the weather is going, although it's possible to be hit with a hard freeze late in the season (like last year!). And your own time factor figures in too.

This year, I tried some summer and fall sowing; the sweet williams I summer sowed are still pretty small, but looking good, and some fall-sown calendulas are now growing like they're possessed. Whether they'll flower before a killing frost is yet to be seen.

This winter, I want to try some different cool-season veggies, and I'm thinking to start those maybe in late February. We'll see what happens ...

PV

This will be my first time winter sowing. I will be leaving for winter vacation January 12 and won't return till March 8 so that is why I thought WS would be great for me.

Now I'm not sure just what I should sow anything early.

I had thought to put everything out before I leave but after reading this post I'm not sure. Would it be best to save the tomato seeds for when I come back? Last March we came back to 12 inches of snow on the ground! Who knows what it will be like next year. Should I go ahead and put all the seeds out and hope for the best? If there is snow cover the seeds will be under it on our deck so they won't even think about sprouting till the snow is gone.

'Oh ye of more experience' give me your opinions!!!!

Connie