Your lettuces don't have to be in rows, but a bit of order to them makes it easy to do an early weeding when they are young.

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Then once they get going they make a nice carpet and you just thin and serve baby greens to give the others a bit of elbow room as they grow. They don't mind a bit of crowding, though.

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I started my cool weather veg (lettuces, turnip greens, kale, brassicas, etc) in February and planted them out when they started getting there first true leaves. Most of them were about this size when they went out:

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But keep in mind that they went out into well prepared soil and I made sure to water them when they needed it.

Lynda

Spinach is day length sensitive and needs to be planted early. One year I planted some in the fall so it would come up in the spring when it was ready. This year I wasn't very happy with some of my sowing. I'm not near my notes right now but sugar snap peas did not germinate as early as I expected them to.
Early seeding of cilantro has never done well. I planted some during the summer and it did much better. Perhaps it can't take the stress of our NH springs.
Usually my seeds don't get enough light and I start them too early. I haven't tried winter sowing yet so I'm not sure what veggies I will try with this method. I think what would have made my garden more successful this year was critter proofing the beet seedlings. I think using bone meal attracted something like a skunk that pawed up most of the seedlings. My late summer planting of beans didn't make it. They were just blossoming when they got hit by frost on Sept 18. I'm investigating season extenders like a poly tunnel. I wouldn't have minded another few weeks of zucchini but I didn't make a new planting. We've had so much warm weather this fall that I think I would have had far better production if things hadn't gotten hit with that early frost. I thought I had at least another month. One variety of lettuce seems extra hardy but some deer browsed it last week right when I was ready to pick it. It seemed to tolerate the light frosts just fine (it was a red leafed variety). One trick I used a long time ago and then again this year was to seed carrots in with the sugar snap peas. I didn't get a great germination rate but when the peas were done I still had carrots in the row to pick. If I had planted a hardy variety I would leave them in the ground during the winter.
Next spring I should have parsnips, parsley on year 2 (I keep cutting the flower stem out during year 2 and get some decent parsley during the second year), garlic chives, and I'm leaving some bok choy that I cut back when it bolted and last week it looked pretty good. Loved a November meal of broccoli side shoots.
I let a volunteer tomato grow but it didn't have time to ripen before it got hit by frost. Here in zone 5 I don't think I can winter sow tomatoes.
I may wait to plant annual herbs until July. My early plantings never seem to do well but late did pretty well. I expect to see some volunteer cilantro and dill.
I think Lynda has the right idea to keep things like lettuce orderly. You could plant a carpet but I wouldn't broadcast the seed. I plant some mixtures so I'm never quite sure what the seedlings look like compared to weeds so I rely on what's in a row to hand weed careful but between the closely spaced rows I can use a hand weeder. I have an old L-shaped tool. My first version was called a Cape Cod weeder. I looked for a reasonably priced replacement last year and didn't find anything. I also have used a scuffle hoe, same principle. You drag the blade just under the surface of the soil to weed. I noticed in Lynda's pictures that it looked like the lettuce was planted in concentric circles.

Cool season peas, like snow peas and sugar snaps, are traditionally started around March 17, depending on where you are. I started mine March 19, and they got too hot and died. So this year, they'll be started in February. Same with cabbage and other cool season crops. My last frost is usually mid April. By mid June, we're in the mid to upper 80s.

defrost -

Not sure what you consider a reasonable price, but Johnny's has a nice tool they call the Wire Weeder and it's great for quick weed removal between plants.

The link takes you to the short handled one. I use the long handled one, and also their narrow co-linear hoe.

The long handle wire weeder is really nice in early spring after you plant out WS hunks of seeds. Just draw it between the HOSs and the weedlings get their growth disrupted while the HOSs stay undisturbed. One or two weedings and the HOSs are big enough to squeeze out the next flush of weed seedlings.

The narrow co-linear is nice for when you want slice off weed tops from their root structure. Good for when weeds are past the seedling stage - scalp their heads off every week or so and then they cry and die. :)

Even though I have the long handled wire weeder, I keep thinking about eventually getting the short handled one too. It's just so nice for tight areas and to puff soil up between HOSs to keep the soil from compacting. I don't mulch anything at all here - I just keep the soil puffy and workable. Sort of like mulching with soil instead of regular mulches.

Lynda

Here is a link that might be useful: Johnny's wire weeder

Onion seeds, broccolli, and any others in that family can't think of the name of it now though, LOL. Sugar snap peas, I direct sow them on St.Patty's day or shortly after, but I'm further north than Token.

Alberta

Lynda I love those tires. Did you have any problems with cutting down the sides? What tool did you use?

Defrost, I am in zone 5 and wintersowed all of my tomatoes this year.

... and I had plenty of ripe tomatoes by August:

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Here is a summary of the schedule I followed this year. (Your results may very)

Beans - direct sown in June
Broccoli/Cauliflower - wintersown in February
Carrots - direct sown in April
Cucumbers - direct sown in May
Lettuces/Spinach/Chard - wintersown in January, 2nd batch sown in late June for fall harvest
Peas - wintersown in March
Peppers - the only thing I sow indoors (March)
Radishes - direct sown in April
Tomatoes - wintersown in March, planted out late May

Herbs, perennial or hardy annuals - wintersow whenever, usually February because I have the time.
Herbs, tender (such as basil) - wintersow in April

Hope this helps some!

Bonnie

Trudi - that's just on side cut out, using a jigsaw on it's high setting.

Here's what it looks like without the soil in it:

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We've also got larger tires, like this canna tire (WS cannas sown in April '09, photo in August '09.)
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Lynda

Lynda,
that is amazing. Great Idea.
I'm putting that on my to do list.
:)Laura

Thank you Lynda! I like those tires!
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Bonnie,

Druel. Slurp. Yum.

I'll take a guess and say the tomatoes are Large Red Cherry, Early Girl and Cherokee Purple?

The peppers are Jalapeno (bigger green), Serrano (darker green) and I have no idea what the little red ones are--maybe Red Stuffing?

LOL, Trudi! You were very close on one of the tomatoes. It's Bloody Butcher, Earl's Faux, and Indian Stripe (a Cherokee Purple relative). The peppers are Senorita (the darker green), Pizza, and red Mini Belles.

Glad you enjoyed them!

I was gonna SAY Bloody Butcher! DANG! To a tomatophile it's all eye candy.

How was the Indian Stripe? HoosierCherokee (Bill) has been singing their praise for a long while.

Note to self--don't change your mind, go with your first guess. LOL.

I thought they were equal in taste to Cherokee Purple, plus the plant was more productive, and maybe slightly less prone to cracking.

Earl's Faux was my favorite this summer though. Sigh ... I miss my fresh tomato, basil, and mozzarella sandwiches.

... and I didn't even LIKE tomatoes until I grew my own last year!!!
Now I've got over a hundred varieties in my seed box. You could say I'm a little hooked, LOL.

Hmmm.

Instead of a seed box go to Staples/OfficeMax and get yourself a nice binder for holding business cards--get the type that lets you add extra pages. It's soooooo nice to flip through the pages and look at all the varieties.

I'm a tomato seed hoarder collector too ;-)

Bonnie, I am jealous but obviously I didn't try hard enough. I just let a volunteer tomato grow that didn't get weeded out earlier. It wasn't really wintersown. Thanks for a great list for zone 5.

Lynda, thanks for the link to the tool. I get Johnny's catalog but thought it looked too bizarre and didn't read the fine print. I have been studying an Eliot Coleman book and he sure gives everything a good and fair test. The price is decent for a good tool. A good weeder makes a big difference in gardening chores. We have quack/witch grass here and a terrible but pretty creeping plant. This kind of tool helps get more of the root system out.

My favorite weeder is a circle hoe.

From the link, you can see a video of how it works.

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: circle hoe