Do lettuce if nothing else. Out of four hundred different types of plants my lettuce sprouted the earliest. It was wonderful and hardy and if I had had any idea how successful it was going to be I would have sowed with a lighter hand. Even better I was able to gather seed later in the year and will be able to plant the same lettuce every year without buying more seed.
My Mother also had great success with broccoli and my Sister in Law got dozens of pea plants going before I had even sown mine.
I also had tomato plants producing fruit up until frost and my plants didn't get diseased or yucky like most of my neighbors gardens.

Hi,
Calendulas were my biggest success. I really think every single seed sprouted. It was my 1st year WSowing so I used the whole packet. lol Same goes for lupines and delphiniums.
failures ligularia (self sowed great) and columbine. 2 packets of seeds and I got 6 sprouts, 5 lived but didn't flower this year. I think I covered them both to thickly.
This year I'm not covering anything with soil. I'm hoping the heave will set them at the right depth.
Oh and lobelia worked so great. I'm going to sow lots of them. They are so beautiful every where. I had no Idea I could grow them from seed. This spring I'm going to be so busy. I can't wait! I'm going to try lots and lots of perennials.
:)Laura

Thanks for the feedback!

Repost from another thread. jim

Hello, been here on this forum for few years and gardener for most of my life I am 73 years old and still garden, my mother gardened and winter sowed in a manner of fashion. People would fill an old wash tub or something simular with good soil in the fall, sprinkle tomato, cabbage or lettuce seeds and cover with a light sprinkling of sand and leave outside over winter, come spring there was these little plants happily growing away. and if frost was likely then throw a blanket over them. I have raised most of my own garden plants from seeds for years by using basement, grow lights, and cold frames, but now use milk jugs and 2 ltr bottles almost exclusly. I found Winter sown by coming to Garden web, nature web site because of my wild life photography and curosity. Long winded but just a small glimps of my gardening life jim