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!
In my last post, I covered all the supplies needed to Winter Sow and in this post I’ll go through the “How To” so you can prepare your seeds for outdoor cold stratification and germination.
First, take your empty and washed water bottle, milk jug, or other container, and cut it around the center leaving a 2-3″ “hinge” in the back where the top part of the jug is still attached to the bottom. Drill four drainage holes in the bottom of the container, or use a small knife to cut some holes.
Take your dry seed starting mix, and put it in a washed (sterilized) container that you can use to mix the seed starter with water. Seed starter is very light and fluffy, you will need to slowly add water to the starter and mix the water in with your hand. You’ll mix just enough water so that the seed starter is consistently moist, but you don’t want it fully saturated and dripping wet. The mixture should almost be a crumbly consistency. Scoop some of this into your hand, and put it in the bottom of your jug. Fill the jug until you have about 3 and a half inches of soil starter.
From there, gently tamp down the mixture into the jug (do not press down hard or compact the mixture) so that the soil surface is even.
Now here comes the real fun! Select a packet of seed you want to plant, and open it up. Some seeds, like the blue poppy seeds shown in the image above, are extremely tiny – about the size of a speck of pepper. You can use a variety of techniques to place the seeds on the soil surface. If I am planting very tiny seeds, I put my fingertip against the bottom of the packet and ensure that I am “grabbing” four or five seeds. I put those seeds into the palm of my “non planting” hand, and then pick up each individual seed with my finger and place it on the soil. Another technique is to take a piece of paper and fold it in half, then gently tap the seed packet onto the paper, allowing only a few seeds to come out. Hold the folded part of the paper over the soil and allow the seeds to roll onto the soil surface. It’s important when you have tiny seeds that you don’t just dump the entire packet into one jug. You could easily put too many seeds on the soil which will waste the seed. Another technique some people use is to take a toothpick and dip it in water, and touch the tip of the moistened toothpick to the seed, which will pick up an individual seed, so it can be placed more accurately on the soil.
Once the seeds are all placed, mist them with a little water so that the seeds “settle” into the seed starting mixture. Mist means exactly that – do not run the soil under a faucet or use a watering can. You’re really just looking for a very fine spray of water.
Can you see the Orange California Poppy seeds sitting on the surface of the soil, in the little peat cells above? There are only 5 or so seeds per cell, which is generous. Most likely some of those seeds will need to be thinned out later so that each seedling does not have to compete for space and nutrients. Yes, later on it will be about survival of the fittest.
In each jug, or in each cell, please make sure that you label what you planted. Once a seed starts to germinate and it gets its “seedling leaves” (cotyledons) you will not be able to distinguish what the plant is since all cotyledons essentially look the same. I also like to indicate the date I planted the seed as well.
If you are using a jug, get a few pieces of duct tape to close up the cut you made around the center of the container. Make sure that you REMOVE the CAP from the top of the bottle or jug, so that rain or snow CAN get in the top. This jug will act like a little greenhouse, and you drilled drainage holes in the bottom of the container so that the soil mixture doesn’t get soggy, but the seeds will need to stay moist in order to germinate.
I might have gotten a little bit carried away with this Winter sowing project, because in addition to the water jugs, I also have large plastic bins with holes drilled in the top and the bottom. Inside the bins, I have peat cells filled with seed starter, and lots of different types of seeds that I believe will germinate inside these containers … once it gets a little warmer.
In several more weeks, probably well into March or even early April, I should start to see some results, with seedlings starting to sprout up. All in all, I planted over 200 “seed cells” or jugs outside with a large variety of plants including both perennials and annuals. Everything from Cream Wild Indigo to Prairie Smoke to Himalayan Blue Poppies and Cosmos. I am not expecting everything to germinate, but it will be fascinating to see what happens.
For now, I am waiting, like every other gardener, for Spring to arrive.
I am approaching the second season in my new garden, after a very hectic first year.
In the first year, we had to remove a lot of invasive species, including: Knotweed, running Bamboo, Pachysandra, lesser celandine (aka ficaria, fig buttercup), Japanese barberry, Burning Bush, English Ivy, Chinese wisteria, Vinca vine, along with many other plants. We wanted to remove these invasive non-natives because they are aggressive and crowd out native plants, and because non-native plants do not support native insects, bees, and birds. This loss of habitat has led to significant declines in native butterflies and birds.
Lesser celandine is a terrible invasive, introduced to this country around 1867. It emerges very early in the Spring and crowds out native plants. It spreads rapidly, and can take over large areas.
We are still not done removing all of the invasives; we have whole patches of bamboo and pachysandra to eliminate. The running bamboo has been so painful to try and remove, and while the above ground poles (culms) are mostly gone (cut with a chainsaw, then chopped down further into 6 foot lengths, then burned in a firepit) we still have underground runners which are extremely difficult to dig up but it must be done.
I should also add that everything we are doing on the property, we are doing with our own hands. That’s two adults, no outside help. It’s amazing to me that we were able to get as far as we did.
In addition to the removal of all these non-natives, we carefully selected native shrubs and plants to add to our landscape in places where we were able to successfully clear the land sufficiently enough to enable new plant material to thrive. That included three new Mountain Laurel, new Rhododendron including two Chionoides and a Rhododendron Maximum (aka Bay Laurel), along with ten different varieties of native and native cultivar deciduous azaleas too, like Pinxter, Swamp Azalea and many more. Beyond those shrubs, we also added Virginia Sweetspire, Button Bush, Chokeberry, New Jersey Tea, and male and female Winterberry bushes.
Beautiful white blossoms on the Chionoides Rhododendron
That probably seems like a lot, which it was, but we went well beyond those plantings in year one. We added herbaceous perennials, and native grasses and bulbs, including a patch of Virginial Bluebells, Astilbe, native Violets, Coneflowers (Echninacea), Geranium Maculatum, Shasta Daisies, Culver Root, Milkweed, Joe Pye Weed, creeping Phlox, crested Dwarf Iris, Blue eyed Grass, Pennsylvania Sedge, Red Ozier Dogwood, Obedient Plant, many varieties of Penstemon, Wild Bergamot (Jacob Cline), New York Ironweed, Asters, Yarrow, Columbine, Coral Bells, Foam Flower, and lots and lots of ferns (Lady Fern, Maidenhair Fern). We also planted some white and purple allium bulbs.
We decided to also add some non-native plants, as long as they were not aggressive or invasive. So we planted Daffodil bulbs, Crocus, Delphinium, Trout Lilies and three white Lilac bushes, including the majestic Madame Lemoine, still known as the best known “double white” lilac in cultivation.
Madame Lemoine Double White Lilac, created by French horticulturalist Victor Lemoine in the 1870’s and named for his wife.
At the end of this past season, in preparation for this coming Spring we also planted a dozen bearded iris bulbs, and three Fritillaria. I can’t wait to see those come up, which will be very exciting!
Frittilaria Imperialis
You are probably getting the right idea if you believe this is a LOT of activity in one year. We were out in the garden every weekend, and many weekdays to make all of this happen. When the garden was in bloom in the Spring and Summer, people who walked past our house walking their dogs, or just out for a stroll with their kids would stop and admire, or ask questions, or make their own notes of what to bring back to their own gardens.
We were so happy that our many neighbors were enjoying our garden changes, especially those people who have lived in the community for decades. The property had fallen into disrepair from a landscaping perspective, and many parts of the property were an impassable bramble. All of that has changed for the better.
You would think, with all of the plants I have mentioned (and many more I did not mention) that we should be able to sit back and just enjoy whatever plants and shrubs come up this season… but NO.
Now we have a daunting task ahead to top what we achieved in year one. In year two we will be growing hundreds of annuals and some new perennials from seed and planting them amongst our existing plants.
In my next post, I will discuss the elaborate plans for Winter sowing of seeds and the dozens of varieties of plants that have been selected for the Spring / Summer 2024 garden.
A blue jay perches on my main mixed seed feeder with multiple feeding ports.
As we head into Winter, the birds in our backyards need good sources of higher protein foods as well as fresh water to drink. The insects that were so readily available in Spring and Summer have dwindled, and the cold takes a toll on birds who are not migrating to warmer climates.
There are so many birds that flock to my feeders at this time of year: blue jays, tufted titmice, black cap chickadees, doves, woodpeckers, cardinals, finches, Carolina wren, dark eyed junco, sparrows, grackles, and more. Each bird has their own preferred type of food, for example woodpeckers prefer peanuts and suet while the finches like the mixed seed in the main feeder along with the specialized “Niger seed” (thistle) that’s in a special finch feeder.
Two finches and a black capped chickadee share the feeder.
Also, remember that some birds are too big to land on a feeder, or the bird does not have the habit from eating from a feeder up in the air, and those birds (like doves, robins and others) may be hunting around underneath your feeder trying to pick up the crumbs of what other birds have dropped. I have not yet put out a tray feeder or ground feeder, because I am concerned all I will really be doing is feeding squirrels (nothing against the squirrels, but they look like they are doing fine fending for themselves…) so I have not yet figured out how to attract more of the ground feeding birds. If you have experience with ground feeders, please leave a comment!
Two Dark Eyed Juncos picking up peanut and suet crumbs on the ground.
TIP: Birds really need energy in the morning, when the sun is just up, and the birds are waking up and getting warmth from the sun and shaking off their torpor. So that means the best time to refill your feeders is just after the sun goes down the evening before, after all the birds have finished eating for the day – OR – before the sun comes up (I’m not awake then, but for you really early morning folks this is a great time too).
TIP: Fresh water is absolutely critical for birds to maintain their metabolism and fresh water can be in short supply when the temperature drops below freezing. Believe it or not, water is more important to the birds than food.
For those who have an outdoor electric supply, you can buy a bird bath heater to keep your bath water liquid so the birds can get a drink. Alternatively, since the birds are only drinking water during the day (and not bathing when its too cold), you can keep a smaller watering area for them in the Winter than you might in the Summer. I use shallow plant saucers. Empty the ice by pouring a little bit of warm water on it, dump the ice out, then pour the remaining warm water into the container. Don’t make the water too hot, but if it is lukewarm (65-75 degrees F) it will also take longer for the container to refreeze and the birds will not injure themselves with water at that temperature.
For those ambitious people who like projects, here are directions for making a do-it-yourself solar bird bath station: https://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/BirdBath/SolarBirdBath.htm. I have also heard that putting ping pong balls in a water bath will help prevent the water from freezing as the ping pong balls circulate, but I have never tried that.
What are your experiences with feeding birds in your Winter garden? Please feel free to share photos!
There’s been a big blank spot for this blog since June 2017, and it’s time for some new 2024 activity centered around an important passion of mine: GARDENING!
Chipmunk lunch break
In 2024, I will be taking a Master Gardening course through my local university co-op extension, and I can’t wait to get started.
There will be a lot of topics that I am sure will be of interest and use to other gardeners, plus I am looking forward to hearing the opinions, advice and experiences of other gardeners.
Since my blog has been inactive for so long, I realize it might take a little while for the news of my ‘new green thumb’ to get out into the blog-o-sphere, but please drop by and say hello and a word of encouragement about gardening if you like!
About six months ago, I found Gardener’s World for the first time. It’s a wonderful British television show completely dedicated to gardening. https://www.gardenersworld.com/ After binge watching the very convivial host, Monty Don and his expert crew for several back years of re-runs showing off amazing British gardens in many different styles (formal and informal), I found myself getting more and more inspired to do more gardening on my own property.
Fortunately, a plant buyer at a nearby garden nursery also tuned me in to Doug Tallamy and his work in the United States to encourage US based gardeners to plant native plants in order to help restore wildlife habitats that have been destroyed due to over development in many areas. Doug’s current – and most excellent – project is called https://homegrownnationalpark.org/ Homegrown National Park. As it says on the website, it is a “IS A GRASSROOTS CALL-TO-ACTION TO REGENERATE BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION BY PLANTING NATIVE PLANTS AND CREATING NEW ECOLOGICAL NETWORKS.”
So, I’m gearing up for some big next steps in my own journey as a relatively new gardener in this coming year with plenty of inspiration from Monty Don, Doug Tallamy, Piet Oudolf, Margaret Roach and others.
If you have a favorite gardening tv show, book, website or other resource: Please Feel Free to Share It Here!
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