Ready!!!!!! Santa came early....10 40lb bags of potting soil and a nice big bag of Pro-Mix! Have been saving water jugs at work, milk jugs at home.....Ready, Set......

I have two 64 qt bags of MG potting mix. I have a friend who has teenagers that drink 5-10 gallons of milk weekly. My own family goes through 3 or 4 gallons per week. All those jugs will keep me busy once the holidays are through. I'm also a fearless recycle snatcher, so I won't run out of containers. I've been trading for seeds for my new shade yard, also. So, I'm ready!

Martha

There are ten 55-quart bags of MG potting mix in the garage, six of them under my truck...why waste all that space? There's a 3.2 cu ft. bale of Fafard growers mix in the living room and another one in the garage that's been there since August so it's nice and dry and not frozen. Whenever I went to the feed store I'd grab a bag of Maine Coast Potting Soil to mix with the Fafard; those are also indoors so they don't freeze. I brought home carloads of milk jugs from the Starbuck's kiosk where I work and they're all clean & dry hanging in bunches from the garage rafters.

OMG do I have seeds!! With many great trades behind me, my spanking new spreadsheet count of seed types waiting to be WS stands at a whopping 71 begining with Acer palmatum/Japanese red maple all the way to Verbascum 'Violetta.' I've been walking through the garden in the afternoon scoping out empty spots where the new plants can go when plunk 'n run time rolls around.

Next on my To Do list is to start printing some labels for these new-to-me perennial seeds. I stocked up on paint pens back in the summer--probably have enough of them to make labels for 1,000 jugs or more.

Wow...looks like I'm ready too!!!

Seeds ordered and first ones have arrived. Year two with new garden so lots of cool plants needed for it. Will be bugging Walmart again for some large bags of soil but need to get the kitty litter jugs set up for seeds.

I guess I have been slacking off... I just started getting things together today. Grabbed some MG soil after procrastinating a week or two. I couldn't decide what soil to use as I've had difficulty growing from seed with MG due to all the bark in it (it always seems to rise to the top and cover seeds or interfere with root growth of surface-sown seeds... at least for me). I still have half a bale of sphagnum moss, so I might just grab a few other ingredients and make my own... if only I could find a tried and true recipe. Buuut, I just found out that there are three Fafard retailers nearby, so I guess I could call and see how much a bale would be. So many things to do...

As for containers, we don't use a lot of milk, and I never bothered to save them since I already have a horde of 2 liter bottles for self-watering pots and mini greenhouses for rootings. Would those work? I still have several flats with clear tops, and I imagine it wouldn't be hard to find a case of those clear plastic salad/leftover boxes.

We finished a hoop house months ago. I wonder if I could do all the WS-ing in there. It stays fairly cool, and I suspect it'll receive at least one good freeze. I just don't want to wake up after a windy night only to find jugs, bottles, trays, and whatnot in the neighbor's yard (oops!).

Seeds... I haven't started on that either. I'm a bit intimidated by all the varieties and how many packets there are to sort through. And there's still Winter Swap 2011... I better get started before that arrives or else I'll definitely be late for the Solstice!

I got the same thing for Christmas this year that I got last year and I am really happy!

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Don

Ok this will be my first year so I have the general idea, but some questions keep lingering. For example, do you put holes in the bottom of the milk jugs for drainage? Or do you just make the material moist and go from there. Do you ever need to add water?
2nd. what are the best things to start at the solstice. I was thinking onions and maybe some perenials, but not sure. LMK, I have some cool seeds, but don't want to start too early-or too late. A

apoppyfield - check out the wintersown.org website and read the solstice information. That should help you choose which seeds to start with.

Do these help?
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Don, that is a nice Christmas gift. I like gifts that you can really use.

I got my bags of MG. I just need a large barrel to mix my soil up. I got the jugs ready.

Bakemom, do you have a picture of your labels with foil tape?

roper...no I don't but it's simple. foil tape is wide like duct tape. I cut a 2 inch slice and write the plant in ball point on the tape. remove the backing and stick on the container. Even when the ink wears off, the indentation is easily read. since it's plumbing tape, it holds very well.