Alina,

There are plenty of vegetables that winter sow just fine, and some that do well with direct sowing. The only ones I know of that are often started indoors are tomatoes and peppers. Even those can be WS, but if you have a short growing season they may not produce early enough.

Here is my list of things I have grown, or am trying this year, and the way I started the seeds:

Bush beans - direct sow
Broccoli - winter sow
Canteloupe - winter sow in April
Carrots - direct sow
Cucumbers - winter sow in late March/early April and direct sow
Lettuce - winter sow
Onions - winter sow and direct sow
Peas - direct sow
Peppers - both winter sow and sow indoors
Swiss Chard - winter sow
Tomatoes - both winter sow and sow indoors

Plus many herbs, which are all winter sowed.

Hope this helps some,
Bonnie

Everything I can I direct sow to save space under the lights and in the green house. This year I'm planning to WS my brocolli and cauliflower sometime in March.
Otherwise I'll start my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, celery in the house under lights around the end of Feb or early March. By mid-March they go out to the greenhouse where they stay until at least Mother's day (last frost date for me).
Last year I started the squash and cukes in the greenhouse end of March to give them a headstart. I used bigger pots (about 6 inch) and planted them with 3-5 seeds to constitute a "hill". Then planted them out disturbing the root ball as little as possible, this seemed to work really well and I'll plan to do that again.
Beans, peas, onions, beets, carrots, lettuce all get direct sowing.
I think I'll also try wsing my herbs in March as well.

In zone 6 here I have a longer growing period. I do ws my cole crops like brocolli, cabbage and cauliflower. I don't ws anything that is easy to direct sow--like beans. I may try wsing some squash this year as I want to plant some every week to let some be trap crops for SVB and still have some coming on later.

While the transplant I could buy for cole crops are bigger than what I had at the same time from WSing, my WS ones were healthier and cold hardy moreso than the bought ones.

I don't do a whole lot of vegetables, but I have noticed that each year I try a few more! And I always try to winter-sow them. The only one I've had trouble with is green beans, so I don't winter-sow them anymore.

This is what I WS:

tomatoes
beets
peas
cukes
eggplant
lettuce
spinach
onions
all my herbs

This year I will also be trying carrots, leeks, scallions... and I think something else I can't remember at the moment!

The lettuces and spinach I sow early, and the peas and beets fairly early. The tomatoes, eggplant and cukes I do later.

:)
Dee

When you WS your veggies, how do you space your seeds? Do you just scatter them in the medium or do you try to space them evenly in the containers?

Thanks so much for your lists of veggies you sow and how you do it! I may post a new thread about all of the veggies I'd like to try and see if anyone has any suggestions for them. I've found that I don't get many responses to my own responses to my posts. I think most people don't read entire threads (which makes sense). I hope that doesn't bother anyone!

Alina

I space mine evenly in the container because I'm anal like that, lol! Actually, the main reason I space evenly and in lines is that it helps me identify the seedling as opposed to a weed.

When I first started WSing, I sowed my vegetable seeds in jiffy pots and put them inside a foil roasting/lasagna pan with a plastic lid. Since I'm fairly new to vegetables, this gave me a bit more feeling of security when transplanting the seedlings, so I didn't disturb the roots.

I still have the pans,and still do some veggies that way, but I find as I'm gaining confidence I am sowing vegetables just like flowers, in containers. I like to use the big rectangle water dispensers, the kind that are of the same material that milk jugs are made of, and you place on the shelf in the fridge and open the tap to pour. I place them on their sides, cut open, sow, and tape shut. They're bigger than the milk jugs but are nice and sturdy and easy to work with.

:)
Dee

I'm the opposite of diggerdee--just throw them in there as fast as I can. I buy my seeds cheaply and way over seed. They are close together and I plant a little hunk of seedlings, say brocolli in one hole. Yes, you can grow two brocollis in the same hole (I grow intensively) Yes you lose some, but if you save seed and buy .10 dollar general seed it all evens out in terms of your time. I plant in those take home styrofoam containers and plant out when they are tiny (have their second set of leaves). I always plant with lots of eggshells aroundt them to protect them while tiny from cutworms and snails.

Diggerdee..I'm using the same containers. Planting several types in each container, using vertical blind slats as dividers.

Can you grow peppers if you take the seeds from the Red Peppers you buy at the store?

Zengeos, you mean the water containers? They're nice, aren't they? I find they are harder to come by around here than the milk jugs though. I like to use them for vegetables which I will be sowing a lot of, like lettuce and spinach and beets (oh my!, lol!)

:)
Dee