On Winter Sowing 2016

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. Proverb

It is the middle of February and you know what that means - time to start the garden!

This winter is certainly not as bad as last winter, despite the -2 degrees temperature we experienced over this past weekend. Last winter, I started my winter sowing in January since it seemed that the winter was going to be relatively mild.  Little did I know we would experience a very, very cold February.  As a result, I did none in February but did do some in March.  The ones I did early did not fare so well, so this year I decided to wait and keep an eye on the temperature.  The forecast is looking pretty good so yesterday I decided to take a break from my regular sewing and start my winter sowing.

The first thing I did was sort through my seeds.  I am a seed collector. There were a number of bags full of seed from plants in my garden - way to many to start in pots. I decided to sow them the way nature does: I went outside and sprinkled the seeds on the ground in areas where I hope they will grow.  We'll see how that works out.

I also had a number of envelopes of mystery seed which I have collected from various places I have been.  Sometimes I remembered to label them with the place I collected them from like these which I collected in Hoboken last fall. The came from a tree that was growing by Sybil's Cave but I have no idea what kind of tree it is.

Very often, however, I was remiss in identifying where they came from so they are  true mysteries to me.

This year I decided to use my mystery seeds, in my first batch of winter sowing.  I set up 9 cartons of seeds, 4 of which are a mystery, 4 of which are seeds from my garden that I know what they are and 1 from a pack of purchased seeds.

Here they are outside in my garden pen.​

I also discovered something which I hope will keep all of my sprouted plants from becoming new mysteries:  fade resistant Sharpies with supposedly super permanent ink.

I learned from my first winter sowing experiment that it was better to number the cartons and record the contents in a notebook then to write on the carton itself because the label rarely survived.  Last year I used a pen and a lot of the numbers faded to the point I could not tell what they were.  Hopefully, this new Sharpie will prevent that.

Last year, if I finished a pack of seed, I just kept the empty package in the back of the journal.  Not that helpful really so this year I decided to cut out the pertinent information and tape it onto the page.

I also found a use for my collection of those hardly used marble notebooks I had to buy every year for the kids for school. This one is from when my youngest, now in high school, was in second grade.

So this year, I am hoping that some of my mystery seeds will sprout and my seed mysteries will be solved. Only time will tell.

Have a fun day!
​Cynthia

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