I would love to hear information on this as well... glad you found this Angela!

Cindy : )

Hi Angela -

Welcome to the winter sowing forum! I've noticed your posts on other forums and I'm sure you'll like it here. The WS-ers are a great bunch and I personally think they's got some of the prettiest gardens you'll find anywhere.

I don't know anything about winter sowing in Texas, so I'll be interested in finding out how it works there too. But I just wanted to make sure to welcome you with a proper "howdy".

Lynda

th eofficial start to the season is the iwnter solstice.

:)

Welcome Angela! glad you found your way over,you will like this forum I am sure! :)
Cant help you on advice for Texas,but I just know someone will be along to steer you in the right direction! :)
You will find data at Trudi's site that will give you an idea of what others before you have ws in your zone. I found these data bases to be very helpful in choosing what I would sow. I printed it all out so I could sit on my living room floor with my boxes of seeds and sort them out from there. I was surprised that most of my seeds could be ws! Have fun! :)
~Angie

I KNOW you can!!!!!!!!! :O)

...and WELCOME!

Welcome to the coldest gardeners you will ever meet. I mean because we are outside in winter planting seeds. LOL
Welcome to the fun group. We will have you planting all sorts of neat stuff and along the way you are saving big bucks. It really is fun. Especially in spring you walk out to your containers and there are plants all ready to plunk and run.Barb

You DEFINITELY can! and remember, ask any questions - never worry if you think they are dumb - we've all asked questions and no one here ever makes you feel silly - believe me, I know - I had a ton of questions and everyone here made me feel like anything I asked was okay - and it is. This will be my fourth or fifth year coming up (can't remember..) and it is so rewarding to know I won't have to buy any plants this spring.

Welcome

Carrie

Cindy - I'm glad my post is of interest to you! I sure hope we both learn a lot and others as well!

Lynda - Thanks for the warm welcome to the wintersowing forum. I had been invited here before, but just didn't quite get it at that point. I'm very excited now!

Doris - Girl, well, guess where we meet again! Nice to "see" you here as well! :-) I will do some research on when the "winter solstice" is. Thanks for the tip that that is what I'm looking for.

Angie - Well, now... I see that a bunch of really cool people are hanging out with you guys! I am glad I found my way here, too! :-) You know, I did kind of notice that most of the thread starters here had MUCH colder zones than me.... Maybe I'm not suppose to be here?... Hmmmmm :-(

Tiffy - Thanks for the welcome! You know I can? Hmmmm... I sure HOPE I can now... maybe wintersowing isn't for my zone?

Barb - (LOL) I want to be in the fun, cold group, too! You're making me EVEN more excited about gardening with your explanations of wintersowing... wow! Your zone just says "four seasons", so can you wintersow in areas that can actually grow gardens all year round or almost all year?

Carrie - Thank you, too, for another very warm welcome! Wow, you're a friendly bunch here! I am not afraid of looking silly with questions, just ask anyone on the tomato, vegggie, composting, SFG, seed this and seed that forums... just about everywhere here... LOL... I'm trying to make up for all the generations in my family recently that didn't garden, so I'm an open book! LOL

I'm holding out hope as I see Carrie is a zone 7... hmmmm.... She's gardened for 4 or 5 years using this method... too cool! So, when do you wintersow, Carrie? What date? Does it vary at all on a year to year basis? Anyone?

Okay, before I ask more questions, I'm gonna head back to Trudi's site and search about the winter starting in my area. I thought that would be a sad time.... you guys make it out to be great!

Blessings,
Angela

Angela,
The Winter Solstice is around Dec. 21st. The best part of w/s in your zone is that you will get green earlier than most of us! I wouldn't think it's too much different than anywhere else? You might have to water a bit earlier, but you'll also have blooms earlier too. Next week we are moving to Colorado (8500 ft. up the mountain) so you'll have blooms way before I do!

If I can do this, anyone can! And...the people here on the WS forum are the best!

glo

I winter sowed a few years ago, I'm going to do it again this year with some kids in our condo complex. One thing I have to say about my first year, is that I didn't expect the results to be as good as they were! I over-seeded my containers, making the seedling difficult to separate.

This year I will use a very light hand on the sowing!!

Okay - My first sowing was in winter of 2004 - I learned the first year that it is better for me to sow my tender annuals closer to spring because when it warmed up in February (as it can do) and my cosmos, zinnias - came up - I had to really protect them from frosty nights that were sure to come up in late Feb/March/early April.

Now, for the past few years, I have had great success doing annuals towards March. Perennials I start in January.

Hope that helps - you will be so happy with your successes

Carrie

Hi Angela. This will be my first year to WS also. I first planned to grow a lot of things to put out in the landscape, but went a little crazy at Value Seeds with flower seeds, which will mostly be planted in pots on the deck.

I know that many of the folks attending the Nov 1. Fort Worth Garden Swap WS, so I hope to pick up some pointers from them. Our mostly mild winters with intermittent cold spells and fewer freezes seem different, but apparently the process still works.

Glo - Thanks for reassuring me! I hope your move is awesome! My husband has wanted to move us to Colorado for years and hasn't managed to quite convince me yet, although I think it's absolutely wonderful there. LOL

So, Winter Solstice is the same everywhere? (LOL)... I guess you're seeing how little I know...

Nancy - Thanks for the tip! I am gonna have to watch the lead hand myself as I way oversowed my cantaloupes this fall. The poor babies are fighting each other and giving me 2 to 5 inches fruits that don't look like they're EVER going to full ripen. I will be much more careful in the future. I'll try to not get TOO excited when I go to plant. LOL

Carrie - Wow! That's some really good info. That's exactly the kind of thing I was worried about. I'm grateful for the heads up.

Liz - LIZ!!! Hey, girl! Fancy meeting you here and there and now here! hee hee... The whole last paragraph of what you wrote is exactly what is concerning me. I know that I personally wear shorts through-out almost the whole winter except for those few crazy days that we see. 50's or what have you is not cold to me... We do get the occasional freeze, but then a week or two later at most you could have a 70+ degree high! All this in the same few days / weeks / months... it's SO crazy!

Oh, and if they're having a plantswap around the 8th of December as well, I sure want to know as I'll be out that way. :-)

Blessings,
Angela

Oh, and one more question... can you wintersow just about any seed, or would wintersowing kill seeds of different varieties?

To be totally open here, I am the most concerned with wasting my seeds because maybe so few germinate. I feel I've traded myself crazy to get these things that I love and adore, and I don't want to ruin my chances of the highest possible germination rate. Do you follow my train of thought? Am I just being ridiculous?

Right now I'm using the baggie / paper towel method to control fully how many seeds germinate and this way I make sure that every viable seed is planted and growing.

Blessings,
Angela

I guess that's a good question - but my experience has been that ANY and ALL seeds that I have ordered have grown via winter/spring - outside method -

Think of seeds in this way: If it has "reseeded" in your garden, for sure you know this method works - you are just protecting the seeds from the elements - e.g. birds, wind, etc...

Others may be able to chime in if there are certain seeds that wouldn't work, but I bet there are very few... This method works - you will be happy!

Carrie

You rock, Angela!

Hi Angela.....I've winter sowed over here in D/FW on and off for a few years. I don't start planting until January. It doesn't really get cold over here until then. I have amazing results......especially with baggies and 2 or 3 liter bottles. Milk jugs were OK but they dried out for some reason.

The baggie tops fall over but that didn't stop the plants. Instead of taping the bottles I pushed the bottom in alittle and shoved the top on. They still stayed damp even with the little opening at the indent.

I plan on doing tons of perennials again. I haven't done any veggies because I start indoors so I can plant real early. I'll try some peppers and squash this year.

shebear - Have you tried to WS tomatoes? That's the only veggie I've started inside in the past and I've wondered if they would be ready soon enough to avoid summer heat if I wintersowed them.

Carrie - Thanks for reassuring me! I will try a few of some of the seeds I have until I gain more confidence with this method.

Trudi - I do?... Oh, I mean, I do!.... Yah, of course, I do! LOL... Thank you!

Shebear - GREAT info! Thank you SO much!

Liz - Several people have suggested that they winter sow tomatoes, but I think for us, it won't give enough time before all the heat. I have never done this, though, so am awaiting other's responses, but I think I'm only gonna try the heat tolerant varieties for wintersowing when I do those.

Blessings,
Angela

Hi Angela. There is a spring and fall swap in Fort Worth. I think it's been going on for several years. There are several other swaps around the state. You could check the TX Forum, particularly the Exchanges page. (My apologies if you're a regular there. I've been reading so much lately on other GW forums that I can't remember where I've seen whose name.)

I scanned this thread very quickly, but I didn't see anyone refer you to the FAQs. Trudi wrote those as well, and they will answer questions you didn't know you had.

Welcome!
Seedmama

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQs