I've been thinking about this since fall.
I'm hoping a lot of things sprout!
I collected bags and bags of shredded leaves. My composts were full to the brim but are 1/3 that size now.
and I'm collecting lots of card board.
In the Spring, My DH will be building me 7 or 8 new raised beds. Each bed will be 4ft wide by 16ft long. I'm so excited. It's going to be expensive to truck in top soil but I'm worth it.lol.
:) Laura

My new beds were laid out in the fall. I still need to do some amending, but that can be done along the way. As for planting out, I keep mine sorted by those not yet germinated, those with sprouts, and those on the verge of the second set of leaves. Once I see those second leaves, they go into the ground. I have an idea where things will go, but space fills up quickly and I tend to forget my plan as spring gets closer. Once I get to a certain point, it's really more a plunk and run situation. I try to fill the beds with perennials and annuals so I don't have dead spots with no blooms. Remember, some of your perennials won't bloom the first year. Some won't bloom until late fall. And others will be biennial, blooming one year and dying out the next. It's an ongoing thing, this gardening endeavor.

Strategy...????

I'm confused.....

;)
Dee

Frankly I'm dreading it as I don't know where I'll put it all. Will cross that bridge when I get to it. IOW I don't have a strategy.

I have to get some things OUT I no longer want before I can put more in.

Planting out strategy?

My basic plan is to plant things out based on cold tolerance, so things like lettuce, poppies and alyssum first, and work my way towards the tender stuff. As far as placement goes, my flower garden is almost entirely reds, yellows, and oranges, so as long as the short stuff goes at the front, it doesn't really matter where I put stuff, any empty spot will do.

The KISS method - Keep It Simple Stupid : ) (referring to myself as the stupid)

Since I started wintersowing in '07, I've added a vegetable bed, an herb bed, an island bed, and a small bed in the corner of the backyard. DH keeps trying to hold on to the lawn, but I'm slowly acquiring more and more of it each year.

Bonnie

I've been thinking about this too, and am still not 100% sure what my plan is. :)

When I was buying perennials for a bed last year, I had a drawing (on the computer) of my bed, and as I would buy perennials I would arrange them as colored circles on the drawing of the bed. I went through something like 15 iterations of this before it was finally planted in the fall. :p

I was going to do something similar with these, but I started thinking (pessimistically, I know), "What if these don't all make it?" I decided to wait to count my chickens after they have hatched. When I see what is coming up and looking like it has a good shot of making it, then I'll start making plans.

At least, that's what I'm thinking this week... ;)

At this point, I am praying that I have the problem of trying to decide where to put them all, lol... meaning I hope there are sprouts to deal with at all.

But DH describes me as his adorable little pessimist so I adopted some of his eternal optimism and last Fall, I laid the cardboard, covered with shredded leaves and grass clippings and so I now have huge beds to fill.....so there had better be some sprouts in those 100 jugs or my budget to fill those places will be astronomical !!!!!

Like others here, I use a variety of methods. I have pictures of my beds from last year. I get books from the library. I look at pictures and discussions of combinations here on GW forums. I lay my seed packets out and arrange by height, color, and bloom time. I take notes and make sketches (very SKETCHY) in my garden notebook, and in my mind walk through my beds with the help of my pictures, then I think about combinations I like from garden books, here, and the seed packets.

When I start planting in real time, I use some of this planning, but plunk and run also takes over. (I am always SHOCKED at how much planting material comes from such tiny seeds. I have yet to break the 100-jug barrier, and I am always running to get everything out.)

In addition, I also have to see what came back--perennial does not mean "live forever" and hardy plants still croak or look sad. And then there are surprises, such as snapdragons, that survive through a zone five winter. So, I have to make changes on the fly depending on what survives, too. :)

I love thinking ahead, though. This type of planning, winter sowing, and a nice glass of Malbec or Carmenere is what gets me through the winter blues.

cheers,
Norabelle

You know, you can put a lot of plants in just as filler. The non blooming perennials can be planted anywhere. You might want to move them in the fall or next spring anyway. And like Norabelle says, not everything will survive the winter, even if it survived the summer.

I guess I just don't get too caught up in all the worry about what's going where. Things bloom at different times all on their own schedule. Using this method to create a cottage garden is the best way to deal with the "planning" aspect. Shove another plant wherever there is space. When it blooms, no one but you will care or notice that the pink zinnias are clashing with the brown rudbeckias.

{{gwi:343754}}

I mull over the beds as I pace around in late winter/early spring in the yard, waiting for warmth. I think about what I want to move, tear out (more siberian iris on my list this year)and what "worked", what didn't last year. I make plans.

Then it usually gets "suddenly warm" and I am in a frenzy of trying to get the jugs/boxes emptied and the plan goes out the window. SO many plants, and I don't want to lose even one! I run out of beds. I buy planters. I give them away to friends (but bring that jug back!)I squeeze more in (less room for the weeds). I have got a bit more organized in that I can find the specific plants I am looking for ("let's see, whatever i plant here will need to stay low... let me go grab some dianthus, heurachua and low sedum")now that I have actually learned the names and characteristics of most of the plants and keep the jugs in alpa order to facilitate finding specfic plants in a rush..

Thanks everyone! So far the plan i do have is to have hollyhocks and foxgloves against my fence. In the corner by the shed is my sunflower bed, which will have cosmos nearby to cover the bare stems of the sunflowers. I need the snow to melt so i can look at what i have going on. My colors are also pretty well coordinated, so i guess its up to mother nature and the mood im in that day!
Theres a part of me feeling pessimistic too, what if they dont sprout? Ill have alot of empty promix to amend my soil with! I really am just hoping for 1 seed from each jug, but the more the merrier!
Token, in the front of your pic, is that regular coreopsis? I love it.
Norabelle, i agree , this planning is keeping me sane during the winter! Its nice to know i have a month to go befoe i can get out there!

Lily, that's Coreopsis Full Moon. I bought one plant in 2008. I divided it last spring into 12 plants. Now those 12 plants can all be divided. I did a few, but let some of them stay to see how large the clumps will get. It needs full sun to stay upright.

I only have enough planting space (in the ground) for about 10 different plants. Last year I had 3 clumps of purple Salvia, 3 clumps of BESs, some morning glories, nasties, four oclocks and dianthus with some alyssum shoved here and there. I also planted two strawberry plants.

This year, the BESs look like they are going to take over about half the space. The strawberry patch has about tripled in size (which makes me happy). If some of the perennials I have wintersown do well, Some of the BESs will be going just so that I have room for other things. All the rest of what I wintersow will go into containers so those I will just HOS and stick in where they will fit.

That's my plan in a nutshell. I envy all of you with all the space you have. Our entire property is less than .o9 of an acre most of which our house takes up. The dogs need their space as well which leaves me very very little room left.

Oh,
I forgot to mention, I'm going to (all good thoughts here) Line both sides of my drive way with all my beautiful annuals.
and put lots of pers along my stream. And my ditch garden gets wider and wider every year. I'm kinda hoping it takes over the front lawn, lol, lots of wheels spinning in my head.
great thread, thanks.

:) Laura

I'v sowed a lot of milkweed,and echinicea,and today,10 containers of columbine,along with a few others for butterflies and hummers.So, my plan is, to plant around these plants,as they are the ones I want the most.
I will fill in with a lot of annulas,so far I have 110,containers,and will have about 200,in a few weeks, then annuals.
I am not really sure how this will all come together,but I have no dought, that what ever sprouts, it will be beautiful, so I'nm not worried.
cAROL

Token--lovely garden! Looks like cottage garden in woodland setting. I like the blue spruce and vine covered structure to add height and good path too. Full but not out of control.

I'm hoping I'll have enough sprout to have to go with the pluck and run strategy!

I've been debating this myself. This is my first spring on a new property, and space is luckily not an issue. I've got a 20x10 garden to fill, and another border on the edge of part of the road. And filling in what I created last year in the summer and fall. I've thought about planning color combinations, but I just don't think like that but am happily surprised when they happen. I will end up with a cottage garden - I always do! But what else is there to do in the winter than plan gardens, even if you never end up planting to your plan!

I had to chuckle at the question. :-)
Strategy? What strategy?

My garden is so stuffed that I will be lucky I can find a bare spot. I just insert a trowel gingerly and plop in a HOS then hope I don't plant it on top of something precious. lol

"I had to chuckle at the question. :-)
Strategy? What strategy? "

Me too. It must be related to the words 'organized' and 'planning'. I have such a problem with those words in my gardens, but in the end it all seems to work out fine.

Last year I grew a tall Anchusa right at the front of one of my terraced gardens because I just couldn't cull such a fine specimen planted by the birds. Visitors during the gardening tour marveled at the planting!! :O)

Yep, basically walk around with a sprouted container in my hand and find a hole for those lovelies to grow.

I believe that the operative phrase is

"Plunk and run".

:)

My planting our strategy involves advil during the day and wine in the evenings.

It also involves a helpful husband and children.

Seriously, though. . . I have lists of everything I have been WS'ing in a word processor file, with a sort of thumbnail sketch of color and height and other broad details.

Once I see germination, I will use the search function here to get more exact information on each plant. Then I will start making some final decisions as to where it will go.

I'm hoping that by doing it that way, I'm ready with a spot for the things that germinate first, not spending a lot of time on something that does not get planted out until later in the spring, while something more hardy gets all potbound. This, of course, assumes that the seeds will have the good manners to germinate in the order that they will get planted out. Heh.

I am planning on laying down some black plastic on the beds that I will be planting in as soon as this snow melts, in the hopes that the spring weeds won't get a good foothold before I am ready to plant.

And then - yeah, see above about the advil and wine.

strategy? What is that?
Isn't that against the rules of WS or sumthing?!! Trudi Help! (LOL)

Last Spring I taught my then 9 year old son to plant. I read the label and told him where to go... SOme she chose on his own.

I would drag my kids sled with a bunch of jugs on it and go through them as I stop at each flower bed etc.

Not really a strategy but try to enlist extra help.

Karen

Gonna be a whole lot of companion planting going on in my Veggie Garden and Flower Beds. jim Ps I am also the one in charge of the grass.

I have to shyly admit that I am sorta anal about arranging things. I have a pack of grid paper that I have used to make a layout if you will of my beds with all of the things planted. And I also have to admit that with wintersowing if a plant does not live up to my expectantions or does not do well in a certain place or just plain dies it doesn't "hurt" as much as having bought the plant. If that makes sense.

So what I do is I have on my charts what is annual and what is pere. and I plan around these. Since not all pere. will come back as they are surpose to but this way it helps me keep track of where things are surpose to come up at.

But when things are starting to germinating I just keep a tally of sorts but just of pere. like coneflowers or gaillardia and that sort of thing. This way I know how many I "may" have to find spots for. Now the annaul list are just so I will know how many pots I need to fill. And these are used as my filer plants. These can be tucked or whatever whenever there is a bare spot.

As for planting out I start with the things that are bigger and stronger as well the places that have aspots ready for them. I do know this year we will be expanding on one of the shade beds in front. So I can sow a few more shade loving plants.

I like a full garden but yet not too full where you can not see all of the different flowers and plants.

Paula