Notes to self for next year...

15 years ago

Finishing up my second season as a winter sower and I feel like I have learned so much. From all of you here but also from my gardens - what works, what really doesn't, why it's worth experimenting. I am keeping some notes for myself to reflect on this winter and next spring as I get it all started again and I bet some of you are doing the same thing. May we could have a thread here where we share some of our "Notes"?

Here are a few of mine:

SMALL CAN BE VERY PRETTY: after years of being attracted to only large or very robust flowering plants (Joe Pye, Rudbeckia, coneflowers,landscape hibiscus) this year I grew some shorter/smaller/finer things I have found I love. Dianthus, Nigella, Calendula, Blue Flax, Gilia, Linaria, Lobelia, Portulaca, Lavetera. Plus, you really do need something for the front of the beds and planters!

LARGER GROUPINGS ARE BETTER: Especially of the smaller plants. I am going to aim for at least 2' x 2' min. "blocks" of one variety next year, even though it will mean fewer varietes in each bed.

PULL UNWANTED VOLUNTEERS EARLY: I say this every year but somehow can't bare to do it in the spring. But NEXT year I WILL remember wrestling with all that purple Malva and rampant Cleome and yank most of them early.

I HAVE MORE SHADE THAN I THINK I HAVE/PLAN FOR: Discovered that impatiens comes in other varieties than just the usual stuff in flats. Fell in love with Balsam and especially Balfouri. Next year, more of these and more Nicotiana for shade too.

GO FOR THE FOLIAGE. AMARANTHS OF ALL KINDS ARE GREAT.

LET SOME SUNFLOWERS GO TO SEED AND THEN JUST MOVE THE VOLUNTEERS WHERE YOU WANT THEM: And I love that the volunteers are all different. Brown centers and yellow centers and different variations of yellow petals(pale, bright, almost white). Facinating to me that these could all come from the same parent plant. Just like children in a family looking different.

What do you want to remember next year???

Nancy

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Comments (10)

dorisl
15 years ago
Last winter, is just WS'd EVERYTHING I was planning to grow, cuz I felt overwhelmed trying to figure out what would work and what didnt.

Im more comfortable understanding what tender annuals are.

Plant more SNAPDRAGONS cuz the bunnies dont care for them (so far knock on wood).
northerner_on
15 years ago
These are a few I have already written down:

Continue using the WS Tomato method which worked for me. It was so great not to have to fuss with plants grown under lights.

DO NOT Winter Sow poppies - early Spring works very well.

Purchase seeds for annuals you have planned for.

Purchase fresh vegie/herb seed every year.
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lillyjane
15 years ago
1. Have my beds ready EARLY!
2. Know what I am planting (the size & color) LOL
3. I really liked using foam cups in clear sweater boxes.
4. Keep better records,
a. What trades I did.
b. Who sent me seeds for sasbe. ( I still feel bad
about losing track so I can let people now how
their babies are doing. )
5. It really is ok to plant out tiny babies, for me the
tiny ones done the best.
6. Plant more veggies, I really love the maters in the
16 oz cup, & add dirt when needed, Thanks Trudi ")
7. Be more selective in my choice of plants.
8. Don't do more than I can keep up with.
9. HAVE MY BEDS BEDS READY EARLY !!!!!!!

This was my first year WSing, it is something I will always plan on doing. People here are sooo nice to send seeds & give advice, I have learned so much. I'm sorry that I have lost track of what seeds came from who so I could update them on their babies. Now I am trying to learn seed saving so I can share also.

Last thing :
1. Learn how to post pics, hahaha Angie has tried to tell
  me a couple of times, & I have read different posts
  about it, but I can't seem to get it figured out. LOL
  Good Grief ! now I know how my Mom feels sometimes.
  Jan ") Hahahahaha
rbrady
15 years ago
This was my first year wintersowing, so I have a few "notes to self" when it comes to my second year.

1. Buy a digital camera so I can post pics of my babies.
2. Like others I need to prepare my flower beds early!
3. Plant more annuals.
4. Keep track of what I plant HOS. I was in such a hurry to get them in the ground I have NO idea what or where some of my babies are. Now I have to wait until they bloom!
5. Keep better records of where I received my seed.
6. And last, but not least, I WILL NOT plant as many this year!

Rhonda

(And thanks to everyone for their help, I love wintersowing!)
dirtbert
15 years ago
Being my first year ws'ing I'll admit I was a bit skeptical. Especially considering how cold our winters are. I've learned that I can in fact start ws'ing tender annuals in January and Febuary and they will sprout in the spring when they are ready just fine. So next year I will...

- definitely ws ALL of my annuals I use for container garden. My ws'd annuals this year look sooo much better than the ones I started under lights and in the greenhouse.
- Utilize my abundance of annuals in my perennial beds to fill in gaps more.
- Stay on the lookout for hardy perennials to winter sow...there is just so much out there other than the every day stuff! I've already started a list...now to find some good seed sales :)
- Oh, and I've learned to look at plastic containers in a whole new light :)
- Experiment with ws'ing veggies too.
paulan70
15 years ago
There is one thing I am going to have trouble with this year and that is trying to figure what type of zinnia is which I planted out 20+ of different zinnias and I can for sure only tell a few of them. So I am going to have to try and figure out a way to ID them when I go to collect seeds. Other than that

sow with a light hand with the small seeds.

plan out as much as possible while the babies are small.

once your make a diagram of the garden stick to it and don't make changes to it at the last moment or else your system falls apart on you on the spot.

Always write dawn what you planted and where you planted it.

I think that is all for me.

Paula
tndandelion
15 years ago
Make a plan. LOL Don't sow so much (right!). Label, label, label. Oh...and definitely w/s tomatoes again.
mnwsgal
15 years ago
Sow fewer containers
Sow more annuals, especially zinnias
Plant mg in containers to twarth the critters
Get those new beds ready NOW
Cull the perennials in holding beds
Think about holding a plant sale or participating in someone else's (I presently sell plants at the end of the drive when others in the neighborhood have garage sales but haven't advertised)
highalttransplant
15 years ago
This was my second year of WSing, but I still have some fine tuning to do.

* Sow more containers of the things I REALLY want, to allow for inevitable losses due to insect/deer/rabbit damage, weather issues, unidentified crop failure, etc.

* Had no trouble with labels fading on the containers, but forgot to put labels out with the plants when planting them in the garden. It's easy to recognize a petunia, or a marigold, but I wasn't for sure which tomato plant was Sungold and which was Supersweet 100's, until they started to ripen. (BTW, Paula, I had a diagram for the veggie bed, but in the frenzy of planting out, I lost track of what I had put where)

* Trust the WS method for tomatoes. The WS plants have caught up with the indoor sown ones, even though they germinated 3 or 4 weeks later!

* Ditto on keeping better track of trades, so I'll know who to thank for what.

I'm sure there are more lessons learned this year, but I can't think of them right now.

Bonnie
leecb
15 years ago
Ah....great list.

- I second pulling volunteers early.
I had Agastache sprouts growing in every nook and cranny and couldnt bear to pull them out. Now if I want to plant something I have to pull up full grown plants and find some other place to put them (and feel even more guilty).

- More perennials this year. I did mostly annuals.

- Grow NIGELLA. I had one measley little sprout and it died a slow death.

- Going along with that: avoid anything that says "easy to grow" on the seed pack. If it's "easy" I will fail miserably.

- Let the sprouts go and stop feeling bad when I've given away extra sprouts to people who dont plant them or take care of them.
My mother in law put the extras I gave her (Cosmos, Love Lies Bleeding, Snapdragons and Cleome) in a single gallon pot on her deck. My Cleome is 5 ft tall and wiiiiiide. Hers is 2 inches tall. I ranted to the DH about how there are plenty of people out there who would have loved that little plant and been grateful to have it until I realized that I sounded like a psycho. :(

- Use more jugs and bottles and less metal take-out containers. I managed to fry a dozen containers this year.

- Paitence. Almost every dumped container of "duds" eventually grew....

:)

Notes to self for next year...

Comments (10)

dorisl

northerner_on

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