Rainyday, if you have adequate drainage holes, you won't need the tarp....the potting soil in your containers can only hold so much water and the rain will drain out the bottom. I place all my containers on my deck, in shade all winter. As daylight hours increase late winter they are gradually in sun and by the time late Spring is here I will move the germinated shade lovers closer to the house where they are out of mid day sun. Even most shade lovers are fine in sun at first, just as they would be if they had germinated self sown under deciduous trees so there's no rush or pressure.

Thanks Token! Those look great. Agh, I seem to have missed the boat! I'm tempted to try with a heavy mulch - maybe I'll sow some now and some in winter and see what happens. Don't you just love echinacea?! I love purple and have several loropetalums, and i think purple echinacea w/ loropetalum is one of my favorite combinations!

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

ladyrose, thank you so much for doing the count this year. I did not WS nearly as much as I usually do, but I still checked the count almost every day, as I have for all the years it's been kept. It's fun to see what others are doing and to have a friendly competition. I know it takes some effort to keep track of all of us, and so I want you to know that we appreciate the time and effort you put into this for us. THANK YOU! Dee