Winter sowing

Wintersown containers

No, I have not turned my garden into an outdoor bakery and rotisserie!

This photo comes to you courtesy of the Winter Sowing forum at GardenWeb. Winter sowing is a method of seed-starting that works particularly well for seeds that need a period of stratification to germinate. Stratification is tricky-- it usually involves soaking seeds and chilling them in the refrigerator to mimic prime germination conditions in the wild. That's part of the appeal of winter sowing-- it lets nature do (almost) all the tricky work.

I have to admit, though: to me, a larger part of the appeal is the frugality of the approach. You can go out of the way to buy special cold frames for your wintersown seeds, but a near-infinite variety of recycled containers with clear tops will do just as well. You can see that my collection includes two strawberry baskets, four bakery boxes, and four roast chicken take-out containers. I've also got a bunch of milk jugs and sprout containers in reserve, should any additional seeds *ahem* fall into my shopping cart.

I'm hoping that this experiment will work out-- if so, you can bet I'll be on a seed-buying rampage this fall, when seed sales hit. I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to the end of the growing season... chalk it up to another point for winter sowing!

---
Cross-posted to Vox.