If you long to start your own plants from seed, yet barely have enough room for a houseplant let alone an elaborate light set-up, consider the winter sowing method. Winter sowing is appealing for many reasons, but my favorite part about it is that it's super simple. In general, when you decide to winter sow, you are letting Nature do the work of seed starting for you. You pot up seeds, but, instead of placing them under lights indoors, you set them outside and let them do their thing. In essence, you're taking advantage of many plants' ability to self-sow, but controlling where those baby plants spring up. Most winter sowers (and there are fans abound where winter sowing is concerned!) reuse plastic milk jugs, deli trays, yogurt cups, or two-liter soda bottles to plant their seeds in.
While I am absolutely in love with starting seeds indoors (I like all of the stuff--the lights, the heat mats, the little flats and cell packs...) I always end up planting up a few milk jugs for winter sowing. It saves room under lights, which I reserve for those items that need a little more coddling.
If you're interested in learning more about winter sowing, check out the WinterSown site. Founder Trudi Davidoff is a truly addicted gardener, and one who is passionate about getting people to get out there in the garden. If you're interested, Trudi sends out seeds appropriate for winter sowing via her website. There are plenty of details about the free seeds, as well as which seeds work well for winter sowing, on the WinterSown site.
So, have you done wintersowing before? How did you like it? And, if you are new to the idea, does this seem like something you'd like to try? If you're interested in discussing your wintersowing experiences, I've set up an area in the forum for exactly that purpose!
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