Carytoo and Midmented - Great advice, thank you! I am going to get busy this week prepping more containers and start just about EVERYTHINGin the next 2-3 weeks. I'll definitely hold back some pepper and tomato seeds for indoors in case I have failures. I'll also check out the container wars forum (thanks, Carytoo). Do either of you worry about over-heating in the sun? On a warm day in Feb/Mar do you open up the jugs for a few hours or just let them be? It can get super warm in zone 7 on random days. Here is what I am going to WS: (I'll post a follow-up with results - finger's crossed! This feels really ambitious for a first try, but we really are starting the entire garden from scratch) Arugula Wild Rocket Arugula Basil Genovese Basil Thai Sweet Basil Dark Purple Opal Beans - Bush Snap Roma II Bush Bean Beet Detroit Dark Red Borage Calendula Orange King Celery Tendercrisp Celery Chamomile Chives Cilantro Cosmos Cucumber Marketmore 76 Dill Bouquet Eggplant Rosa Bianca Kale Dwarf Siberian Lamb's Ear Lavender Lettuce - Crisphead Big Boston Lettuce - Leaf Rocky Top Mix Marigolds Marjoram Mint Spearmint Oregano Greek Parsley Giant of Italy Pepper Chinese 5 Color Pepper Purple Jalapeno Pepper Golden Cal Wonder Rosemary Scallions Ishikura Spinach Bloomsdale Long Standing Squash (Summer) Early Prolific Straightneck Squash (Summer) Black Beauty Squash (Winter) Butternut - Waltham Swiss Chard 5 color Silverbeet Tarragon Russian Tomato Brandywine Tomato Goldman's Italian American Tomato Yellow Brandywine Tomato Black Cherry Tomato Big Rainbow

The tithonia, cosmos, nicotiana, and zinnias are tender and don't need any cold so I would wait on those. I don't know how much cold the verbena really needs. I think it is also called Brazilian verbena. Maybe some cold will improve germination, but may not be absolutely necessary. It self-seeds here in zone 5. Cleome is kind of a hit or miss one. Some people say it works for them with no cold, others say it needs cold. My best results with it were actually before I started wintersowing and I had sown them in moist mix in a bag. I put them in the fridge for a couple of weeks to a month. Then for a week or so I took them out of the fridge during the day and put them back in at night before leaving them out to germinate. I had almost 100% germination but it was a fussy process. If you want to start things that you know need cold but it is already too warm out, you can always do the cold strat part in the fridge in baggies of moist mix before sowing them outside.

We all begin to WS after December 21st. You can read the FAQs to learn all about it. Trudi

Fairydancer - My first sprouts were on March 25th. Those were the bachelor buttons and wallflower which are very early germinaters. Then in the beginning of April they really started taking off. I stopped recording sprout dates on May 31st. After that point I just marked whether or not they germinated. There was a few that germinated in June. It depends on what you are growing and the condition they are growing in. Don't panic about the headroom. Like Anne-Marie said, they don't shoot up overnight. You have time to monitor them. Mine didn't die when they hit the plastic, either. Most had sufficient headroom but there were a few that needed more. They'd just bend underneath the plastic and pop right up when you took the cover off. You can usually make the air holes bigger at this point and they will peak their heads out of the holes. I'd make the holes right above a cluster in the pot. I tried to plan ahead by giving them headroom with either a stick in the middle of the pot or a drinking straw in a cup. I made little tents over the containers. The only thing that I did have to re-cover was my spinach. That one grows fast! If you do run into a major problem, itÂs fixable! I posted a link for an idea below for you. Anne-Marie is right on track. Check out "Debbie SW OK"Âs photos. The fourth and fifth pictures will give you an easy solution. I donÂt see holes in her plastic  she must lift it to water. Notice that she tented the plastic up with some kind of poles so the plastic doesnÂt hit the cups. If you follow the post down "shoe" used sweater bags. Three hundred cups equals a lot of sweater bags, though! Perhaps you could pick up a couple of clear shower curtain liners from the dollar store and rig something up like Debbie. ThatÂs only if you run into trouble! Not to add to your worry, but do watch the rubber bands. I didn't use any but did read reports of them deteriorating over the winter in some areas. I use duct tape on everything but youÂre not going to want to recover 300 cups! You might have to replace them as the winter progresses. Let us know how they hold up in our area! IÂm glad to see so many Âneighbors winter sowing! My chief concern is the spring rains we normally get. I donÂt want to flood anything and those rainstorms can be pretty severe on little sprouts. We were lucky that we only experienced a few downpours last year. ItÂs going to be good to have people to compare notes with! Here is a link that might be useful: container pictures