Winter Sowing – March RESULTS!

After all the snow, rain and freezing cold nights, today we finally got a break in the weather. Today’s high was 66 degrees (Fahrenheit) so I decided to take the lids off of my larger plastic bins that have been sitting outside since late January and have a peek inside.

When I did, all I could say was WOW!! It is so exciting to see so many seedlings coming up! They’re alive!!

Some were just tiny green dots on the surface of the soil, but other seedlings were standing up with several leaves. It’s the first time I have done Winter sowing, and I know I went overboard with my planting, but it is so gratifying to see these early results!

Some of the early plants that are “Springing” to life now are Bachelor Buttons (aka Cornflowers); California Poppies; Snapdragons, Hyssop; a Salvia variety called ‘Pink Sundae’; and an entire container of Cottage Pinks! There are dozens of other plants that should continue to grow and develop as the weather warms up.

The beginning of Spring does not arrive until March 19th, so incredibly, these seeds were planted in the Winter and sprouted in the Winter.

My plan is to start planting out Snapdragons and Bachelor Buttons soon, because they should be safe to put in the ground at least 3 weeks before the last frost, which is approximately April 9th this year. It’s funny, I have never been so aware of the daily weather forecasts until now, especially nighttime temperatures.

This Sunday might be a good day to try to plant some of the seedlings, since it will be cloudy that day and cloudy for the following 5 days – no rain in the forecast for now. And because I have an abundance of seedlings, I can experiment by putting a half dozen or more plants in the ground and see if they adjust and do well. If they do, I can wait and sow more seedlings as we get closer to April!