It's now early Spring but still a great time to sow veggies and herbs, especially in our colder zones. I've got the perennials/hardy annuals pretty much done, but still plan to sow tomatoes, basil, parsley, dill, Cardinal climber, Salvia, Melampodium and lots of other more tender plants. Sometime over the next week I'll start them in cups and put them up against the foundation on the south side of the house. That's one of the warmest microclimates in the yard. Most of these sprout and grow best with warm weather and so far it's been a cool Spring. We just had 4 inches of snow yesterday. Definitely not too late!

To quote from Bill Cullina, who wrote a book on propagating native plants of the northeast, and other parts of North America, "Many species will recieve adequate stratification if placed outside before mid-February in New England." Since most of us in Canada are in colder zones than that, WS is not over yet for us. Many native plants need only 30-60 days of 4 degree C. or cooler weather to germinate. Some need 90 days or more and some don't need any. The only time-consuming part of WS is figuring out which seeds are which. If one consults several different germination guides, the information given is often conflicting. That's when I "hem" and "haw" and try to make up my mind when to sow for optimal success. I wish that more of these germination guides were in better agreement. I'm a beginner and I need all the help I can get. Just don't confuse me.

Winter sowing is a technique/strategy that allows vegetables/annuals/perennials/shrubs/trees to grow naturally as they would if the seeds fell from the plants onto the soil. There's little need for humans to "take control," "micromanage" or try to direct the plants--they know what to do and when if you simply allow them to do what they'd do if humans weren't part of the equation. Take a chill pill, relax and don't sweat when things do what they do on their own. Gardeners don't tell plants what to do and when. Plants do what they do when they know (based on their genetic code) what to do. I've never traded stocks but am guessing it's a high-pressure business. Gardening isn't a business; it's life. Windows don't close in gardening. Windows open when wintersown plants sprout, grow and bloom. I've grown an alphabetical list of perennials along with apple, pear and dogwood trees from seeds via winter sowing. Gardening isn't an exact science so if you're expecting folks to weigh in on exact science, you'll be disappointed. You can't "micromanage" nature. Things will grow, bloom & produce at their own pace. If you expect to speed the cycle up to meet your expectations you'll need to intervene or else introduce artificial methods of production. Normally, plants cannot be controlled or ordered or coerced into performing as humans demand they do. Plants have populated the planet for several millenniums without humans directing them. You won't appreciate the information I've imparted above because you don't really want to garden. You want to control. At some point you'll stumble across the knowledge that you never will.

patti-OUCH! But it happens to everyone. I took a sculpture class years ago-the 1st class our instructor pointed out the damage to be done to one's body by each dangerous tool! Did I hurt myself with the cutting torch, band saw, power chisels, or molten metal? NAH! I ended up @ the ER from trying to sever my thumb with the totally average X-Acto knife! I've always had more seeds than containers too-I'll never forget passing an open recycle bin with a pile of clean gallon water jugs on top-about 20 of them & even tied together. You've never seen a car stop so quickly & a trunk lid open! Not sure if this is technically OK, but I DID recycle them come summer! Around here people "curb" lots of stuff the night before garbage collection. There are "scrappers" that collect metal objects left out & sold to the scrap yard. Stuff stays out of the landfill & someone makes a buck or 2-win/win! My best score was a plastic composter left out in front of a house being flipped. I just wish it would have fit in the car-that was a long 1/2 mile walk dragging it home! Anyway, water jugs are my favorites but I did a lot of 2 L soda bottles when we had a lot. The "lid" will fit down in if you cut at the right part of the curve. If they have the little "feet" on the bottom it's really easy to snip the ends off for drainage. The only tough part is that a lot of the bottles have nice curvy shapes that make it tougher to remove the seedlings than the more generic brands with nice straight walls. For cutting jugs I've taken over an old pair of kitchen shears-nice & heavy, strong blades, no longer good enough for kitchen work but fine for in the shed! Another tool I've used, mostly when I was starting small plantings in standard yogurt cups was an old soldering iron-makes great drainage holes with no effort, BUT I was using it in an outdoor shed with the doors open. I don't think you want to be breathing melty plastic indoors!