Thank you for the reminder! I've been looking forward to my annual solstice planting for weeks now, but, alas, have been sick and probably would have forgotten.

I'm with you on the date, so did a little research. It's usually December 21st, but occasionally falls on the 22nd. One site gave a time of 6:08 a.m., another 6:12 a.m. (alright, close enough) but another gave a time of 1:08 a.m. Finally, Chiff.com cleared it all up with the following: "In the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice occurs on December 22, 2007 at 1:08 AM EST; and at 6:08 AM UT (Universal Time)."

Not being much of a morning person, however, I'm leaning toward a mid-day planting, based on the following from the NOAA site: "The Winter Solstice or astronomical winter begins on December 22, when the noontime sun is farthest south in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere." Noon is good - thank you NOAA.

Lots of people do something called "wintersowing" - there's a forum by that name here on GardenWeb. I've tried it and, overall, would say it's very effective - no greenhouse needed. Severl of the people over there really get into the celebration aspect ... go check it out :-)

Thanks to your reminder, I will be doing a "ceremonial" planting tomorrow, using four sets of seeds, one each for Remembrance, Life, Mother Earth and Faith. A link to the GW page explaining this is below in case you're interested, however, last year instead of tree seeds for M. Earth I planted legume seeds, and for Faith planted some very old seeds I had found.

Enjoy your solstice sowing, whenever you decide to do it, and I hope it's a productive one.

Diane

Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Solstice Celebration

HI Diane,
I also do wintersowing along with the gh. I guess you could techically say they are mini greenhouses we use. I started on my ws already. I know I was a little early, but I couldnt help myself. There is something about putting yours hands in dirt and the smell of it. LOL I am totally addicted. I was gonna do a ceremonial planting but didnt. I put out perrienal seeds that are hardy to my zone. I just hope they dont rot by spring. I did save half of the seeds just in case. I hope you are feeling better...... Have a happy holiday. Barb

Seed starting here will begin in late Feb. A few will be sown sooner such as peppers and snapdragons. Last frost date is April 15th but we can get frost up to April 20th. Some years we don't get frost after the 1st of April. I've started taking cuttings of my favorite impatiens. I need to start taking more cuttings of my geraniums.

Each Dec 21st morning my dad would have eggs standing in the kitchen for me when I awoke as that's my birthday. It only worked on the 21st. Have a great New Years, Dax