Ken - the key difference between your milk jug and mine is yours needs "bottom heat under lights" in order for the plant to grow, both of which require electricity. Winter sowing is all natural, doesn't cost any more than a bag of growers mix and leaves the growing part to Mother Nature. The added bonus is re-purposing recyclables. Once I set a milk jug with growers mix and seeds out in the snow/cold, Ma Nature is in charge and I'm off the payroll until the seeds germinate and pretty much until they're ready for planting out if it comes to that. There is a post in the winter sowing forum about various ways to prep jugs. I'll try to find & link it. One beauty of winter sowing is, there is really no right or wrong way to prep a container. Containers can be anything that's deep enough, lets in sufficient light & has enough head room for top growth. I use an ice pick to poke drainage holes; others use a box cutter or soldering iron. Whatever works for each individual is fine. The most important thing is drainage so seeds don't rot + enough growers mix for healthy root development. There are some amateur winter sowing videos on YouTube. They'll demonstrate what to do but I'd have to say they're not on a level with Roberts Rules of Order. 'Nuff said. A couple years ago I tried growing ornamental dogwood trees from seeds I harvested at the office where I work. They sprouted and grew at the rate of 12-14 inches per year. A neighbor asked me to grow heirloom apple and pear tree seeds for him from trees he picked from as a boy in upstate Vermont. He gave me 4 apple tree seeds & 10 pear tree seeds in December 2010. I gave hime 4 apple tree seedlings & 10 pear tree seedlings in April 2011 to plant in his orchard. One benefit of winter sowing is amazingly high germination rates. It was not my intent to steal the thread and turn it into a winter sowing testimonial. I just wanted the OP to be aware & consider WS as a USDA-approved way to economically/affordably fill her garden beds with flowering perennials as well as annuals, vines, vegetables, herbs, trees & shrubs. Just today I noticed the potentilla/cinquefoil I winter sowed last year is up...

True Value! I stopped into the Litchfield store and purchased 5 packs for $1! They are American Seed and they have flowers and veggie seeds. There are lots more but I got Cosmos, Single Sensation Zinnea, Lilliput (I love the small zinnias and they blossom quickly! Zinnea, Dwarf Pumila Sprite Mixed COlors Zinnea, Giant Cactus Mixed Colors Zinnea, Giants of California Forget-Me-Not Gypsophilia, Covent Garden California Poppy, Orange I just love Zinnea!!!

I wish Photobucket hadn't changed their policy and dumped free users. I can't edit my 2012 comment, in order to update the picture either. Here's the picture which I can't fix in the post above. In this post I'll include a picture I took of potato onions in 2017. This is the only one, out of about a pound of potato onions, which I had planted, which produced well. But it was also the only one which was planted correctly, according to the comments above, made by more knowledgeable onion growers. I've replanted all of these onions in December and mulched them. So, I hope to get some real multiplication in the coming year. In our climate it seems extra important to harvest them before July. Otherwise they rot in the ground. Also, I believe they store better, until planting, on my kitchen counter, than in the refrigerator. The fridge is too cold and provokes sprouting. These were purchased from Southern Exposure and the instructions they send with them have been very helpful.

Kim, sorry to hear about the damage. Given that I live among a large herd of deer and quite a few rabbits, I've been literally experimenting with what can be grown without having to purchase things like liquid fence. I'm in North Carolina, so what's resistant for me and our deer herd may not work everywhere. I've tried to be reasonable about the damage. For example, I pinch back new growth to make perennials bushier so if the deer or rabbits do that first, I don't get too upset about it and I've had some beautiful big clumps of rudbeckia after the nibbling. They are leaving the mature blooms alone. Since my entire outer garden (outside my fence) was newly planted this spring, I temporarily put up a whimpy 32" high edging fence. That actually worked for several months before the deer started jumping in. What they've eaten has been minimal and acceptable loss so that I consider my deer experiment a success. The fence is down and they aren't eating anything. The rabbits, while on the property, don't frequent quite as often although we've found 3-4 baby bunnies in among the flowers several times. This is a topic of my gardening blog if you want to go look. Last week I wrote an entry about deer, drought and disease resistant plants that I've grown this year. I have prior entries in the archive that includes some bunny talk. Whenever I cut back my lavender, nepeta, basil, rosemary, sage -- I throw the cuttings around blooming flowers in my garden. I think the strong scent of those throws off the bunnies. I guess my philosophy is that I'm no longer going to spend $100 every year on concoctions to try to deter the critters from eating a few $5.00 plants. I've also adopted the philosophy that if one of my perennials is too damaged, I'll give it to a friend and divide one of my resistant varieties to use as a replacement. That said, I've had lots and lots of blooms and color in the garden. If you plant for butterflies, most of their favorites are on the yuck list for deer and bunnies. I empathize with your situation -- used to be there when I lived at my previous house. I spent too much money protecting hostas, hydrangeas and daylilies and didn't have anything to show for it. The deer always won, sooner or later. Hope this is helpful. Cameron Here is a link that might be useful: the deer report