Welcome, adamark, to the WS forum and to a fun filled winter.
Love your enthusiasm. It sounds like you've sown way more than I.:-P You'll have a great time planting them comes spring.

Please come to our plant swap in June. You'll get to meet several WSowers. It's great fun.

Welcome to the insanity! Actually, wintersowing is what helps me keep my sanity! We are equally glad that you found us! It gives us one more person for us to enable. Your enthusiasm will be contagious, and your family will understand when your containers start sprouting and your garden will be beautiful!

LOL! You crack me up. If you don't quit this, you are going to make it winter all year round! I just can't stop chuckling at you, sound like me only with more energy.

You are among kindred spirits. Welcome!

The answers to your questions are yes, yes, no and maybe. I've been at it so long today, I'll have to check back tomorrow. Somebody else can answer your questions better than I.

Don't worry about your long post. I loved it! A real classic! I really really hope you top some of mine, somebody says something, and it makes me think of things I usually don't think about, pretty much live for today being on the internet and am also a news junkie so don't spend all my time here. Don't worry about your grammar and spelling. I used to be an excellent speller and some of the finer points of grammar, and since I got on the internet I see so many misspelled words I don't know what is right any more. Plus I'm getting old. You sound youngish. Your family will like it when people start admiring your yard.

It will all fall into place. I hope your husband knows how to cook and do other things. It sounds like he's going to need to, but he sounds like a dear.

My family doesn't think I'm nuts. They knew I was nuts a long time ago. As to wintersowing, they don't even bother to humor me. They ignore it. All of it. At least my son did stop by and unload my potting soil. Well, he might have forgotten but brought me something to eat so I asked when he would do it so he decided to NOW. In his thongs. In the snow. Shaking head.

English is my first language but not my language of choice unless I'd been blessed with a British accent. So I'm stuck with a midwestern dialect. My second language is French. My third language is Russian. I'm terrible at it but can at least read some of it. Forget about typing it. Their keyboard is major screwed up.

What is your native language if I may be so bold to ask? My family is multilingual. My sister is fluent in Arabic and learning Chinese. My nephew is fluent in Japanese and Chinese, reads and writes it, speaks a little German. My niece is fluent in Spanish and Italian. My daughter knows some French. That's about it. You'd think one of them would bother to learn some Spanish because it's probably the second most useful second language right now.

"Next question, where I'll plant all these seedlings. Well, I'll face this problem when it will come. We've moved into a new house that we've build and there is plenty of space (so far mostly covered with grass...) but right now I have a very nice veggie garden to be filled."

Welcome to the madness. I'm already hooked and this is my first year for WS. You may want to look at the link below for ideas for your new house and yard/gardens. I just got it and love how easy it is to use. I'll know by spring exactly where all my WS plants are going. I've been looking for something like this for years. Just a suggestion. Have fun and when they see all the new growth in the spring , your family will praise you to high heaven.
Connie

Here is a link that might be useful: Real Time Landscaping Photo software

Welcome aboard the crazy train! Just tell your family it's cheaper than therapy!
-B

You are going to be so proud of your efforts! Wintersowing keeps me sane and now my friends and family that thought I was crazy are true believers and enablers of my addiction.

Happy sowing! You are going to love it here!

And don't worry about those annuals. Some will come up too early & may get taken by frost, but these annuals are amazingly hardy & if they are covered, can take an amazing amount of cold. I've had annuals come through a late snow. If you lose a few, probably not all the seeds germinated anyway, & you'll see some more seedlings when the weather warms up again. Have fun! I don't really need more plants, but I still find myself planting a "few" more every spring. At least I'm down to less than 100, & I don't plant but a few seeds of each. At least that's my reasoning :)

just have to say, I'm a teacher of English as a Second Language, and I usually pick up on a speaker whose first language is not English, and I wouldn't have known with you if you hadn't mentioned it - so I say your English is darn good.

And..
welcome to the madness. :)

Another WSing convert - yes, as others have said - "welcome to the madness". But it really isn't madness if it works, right?

I'm in my third year of WSing and I love it, especially after the three feet of snow that we've had over the last two weeks. I'm ready to begin seeing my containers again sometime soon, like April!

This is definitely a mindset, but at least there are others here who understand and will enable (I mean help - LOL) your addiction.

Cheers and here's to great WS success,
Ann

Welcome to wsowing and hurrah for the madness!

Read up on postings about instant beds and lasagna beds while it is still winter. They make new beds quickly and will be a big help when you are ready to plant out your seedlings. Some of us also put seedlings in a holding bed where they can be closely planted while waiting to get display beds ready. Put instant bed or lasagna bed in the search box at the bottom of the page.

Don't forget to save room for your vegetables in your veg. bed. I use my veg bed to overwinter young plants or plants that I get at fall sales and it is always a race to get them out in the spring so I can get my veggies planted.

Here is a link that might be useful: New garden bed

I am so glad you joined us! there is an awesome swap in chicago and I hope you do come. I went last year and it was great!!!

Also, I am gald you are exctied. I was new last year and I sowed everything too. I bet some will be ok.

I bought those shoe boxes at home depot too! they are so cheap and will stack easily to save for next year.

Have fun!!

I may have a few seeds I can send to you...
Send me an email if interested. I am giving away my extras to newbies.

Karen

Welcome to the best forum..everybody here is no nice, very helpful to Newbies and generous with not only seeds to help you get started but with great tips on how to make WS easier and more efficient.

Mnwsgal - yes, lasagna beds are the way to go! My front yard is on just enough of a slope to have all the grass seed we spread for 4 years and the top soil to go with just slide off. We got great sprouts but then everything would die and it would be empty dirt - so I layered and created a lasagna bed at the front of the yard by the street, and last year took over another two feet in the front yard. Now there's anough grass to walk on but not too much to mow when it gets hazy, hot and humid around here in August. My lasagna bed started with cardboard, cuttings, leaves and some peat moss, then more cuttings, more leaves, some mulch. The bed's now about 6 x 15 feet and after WSing season, hopefully will be full of lots of partial/full shade loving plants! Why try to till the ground around tree roots, when you can just layer your materials and make the bed work where it is?

Thank you all for your posts! I was so excited to see them. Thanks for a warm welcome. Yes, I'm insaine. Today was our recycling day. Driving to work, I spotted a nice milk jag. I almost jump off the car....

Lasagna beds - I was familiar with the idea but I was under impression that it has to be started in the fall for the soil to "get ready". It looks like I can do it in the spring, thanks.

Aliska - it's funny, looks like we have something in common. My third and forth languages are French and Russian. At least used to be, by now I hardly remember anything. My children were born in the Middle East and my husband does speak with British accent (he is a Brit) and he does cook. No Chineese connections though. BTW, thanks for "sound youngish"...

Looking forwards for the Chicago swap! Hope, I'll have something swapable.

My family is used to my madness. Whatever works to keep me happy, they are happy.

Can not wait till weekend for more sowing.

One more thing, I have to admitt; I've sowed a couple of Jiffy's trays for indoor sowing, just for comparrison. Most probably, whatever will sprout will die. I have a couple of week long trips in the spring and my lovely DH will not take care of them. Well, even he is not perfect...

That is the key! When momma's happy, everyone is happy. Whenever my DH starts to complain, I remind him of that and he responds, "You are right dear...whatever makes you happy!"

And when momma's not, well... My boys have already learned that lesson. LOL.

Welcome adamark. You're gonna love it here.

Caryl

Welcome! Yes, you will be able to plant the seedlings right into the garden. They seem small - especially perennials - but they grow fast. My experience has been that my ws perennials have taken off much quicker than seeds started inside. You'll have to post pictures for us when you get some things going in the beds this summer. You will be surprised how full and lush they can be very quickly!