Hi Brandy, Welcome to the wonderful world of wintersowing. I am in a similar situation as you and plant when I can. I have heard that it is best to plant at a full moon for flowers and above-ground veggies... taproots at new moon. OT gardeners can you confirm this answer to brandy's question? The solstice sowing was not so much about planting with the cycle, but more of a neat way to celebrate with other wintersowers (being that the solstice is the official start to the wintersowing season) Trudi has something about it on an earlier thread. Hope you can join in next year. Best of luck with your gardening this year! Peace George

That's a great idea! I talked to "my girls" (ages 11-13) from the garden club about the Solstice over the summer, explaining that this would be the starting time for W/Sing. Maybe I should plan a party for them and get our pots ready. I had been thinking of starting after the holidays, when they were off school. Now would be a good time for me to get another look at that school calendar! Thank you for the reminder! :)

Isn't that poem perfect for the theme of this swap? I too received that card from Chelsie and was very pleased to hear from her! Thanks, Chelsie! Well, I've checked and everyone who signed up to send cards this month have done so. I want to thank each and every one of you for taking time out of your busy lives to participate in this swap. And thanks again for sending the extra, last minute cards! I love this swap and you all helped make it very special for me. Many, many thanks! And I was so glad to hear from our other members too! Nice to catch up with everyone! Please remember, everyone, if you can't join in on any of the swaps, we would love to have you stop by and visit with us. Cards were sent to ALL members of FOTESS, but there are some who haven't responded yet. To those who haven't posted, please let us know if you received Winter Solstice cards, okay? Posting on this swap site will be fine. Jeanne has posted the January FOTESS swap and it sounds like it is going to be FUN!! She always has the best ideas! Check it out and join in! To close this swap, I want to wish all our members a peace-filled New Year, and remember, the Winter Solstice Season lasts for a few months, make the most of it! Shirley! PS - one Winter Solstice Season activity I totally forgot to mention was: feeding the birds. I'll leave you with one last WSS pic.

Birhudugi, there is a forum for winter sowing, and a separate web site, wintersown.org. Both have lots of information if you want to check them out. I've found that the cool-weather plants (whether veggies or not) do better than the warm-weather ones like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil. The warm-weather plants take longer to get going and, although they do eventually catch up (just like "volunteers" do), I start them inside. I've had good results with lettuces and mixed greens - planted the last week of January, we'll have seedlings by the first weekend of March, even when there's snow on the ground all around the containers. You can plant and set out your containers any time after the first day of winter (Dec. 21). You don't put them out sooner because if we should get a late warm spell, they might germinate, and that would be the end of them. Remember, the seeds may be winter hardy, but not the seedlings. Placed out any time after 12/21, the seeds will germinate when the time is right ... which is usually much earlier than you'd expect. I'm hoping to get some planting done this weekend, but have to save some of my collected containers as backup for a class I'll be teaching next Saturday. I hope you'll give it a try, and have success!