I am a tiny bit ambivalent about this, although I did cough up for membership, mainly because of the US majority usage. I also subscribe to Peter beales forum (free) which does have some useful database info but a tiny membership...and herein lies the rub because for me, it is all about user involvement. I have an inbuilt bias against company run forums as their agenda is mainly, either openly or covertly, to sell us stuff, GW has been a useful source of info and, I suspect that I would be more inclined to pay to use it rather than HMF. I also think that I do not make full use of HMF and in truth, could probably have got by without paying for premium membership...but I got excited and carried away. I never make comments or access much of the info on HMF, have failed to rate anything and only just got around to listing my plants (and only those I could remember at the time and have not updated the list). Of course, all these failures are my own, nothing to do with the virtues or otherwise of HMF. Not working at the moment either, so unsure whether I would renew my premium membership.

Hi Donald, welcome to the Winter Sowing Forum. *It's recommended to basically make flats of somekind out of materials at hand, put soil in them -> sow your seeds --> set flats outside in a "safe" area --> wait till spring to see what comes up.* Yep, that's basically what it is, and the nicest aspect, I think, of the method is that you get to do it your way with what you have and within the size of your own wallet. *Wouldnt it be easier to just direct sow in the soil where you want the future plants to be?* All seeds that can be WinterSown can also be Direct Sown, but they should be sown heavily because Mother Nature takes the vast majority of direct sown seeds to feed her critters and biota. Direct Sowing, also called Direct Seeding, is a traditional method for sowing seeds outdoors. It involves preparing the soil bed, sowing the seeds, and keeping them moist throughout germination. The Winter Sowing Method is better because the seeds are protected in their mini-greenhouses. When you direct sow in the ground the seeds are at the mercy of Mother Nature....they can get washed out in downpours, be eaten by critters and bug and birds, desiccate in the wind, or can rot in the soil. In a WS mini-greenhouse the seeds are in a protected environment. They get the same weather as the seeds in the ground...same temperatures, and the little slits in the lids allow both rain and melting snows to keep the soil moist and the flats watered. But they areprotected so more of the seeds will survive to germinate in Spring. The germination counts are generally astonishingly high. *My reasoning is that, if the seeds had dropped from a parent plant already in the garden, that successful germination is just as likely from "semi-natural" re-seeding as it would be if I used the recommended winter sowing method suggested in the FAQ's.* Plants which reseed in temperate climates are those recommended for Winter Sowing. *I guess to me it just seems like the recommended method over complicates the process and just adds more work, after I've spent the growing season pruning, deadheading, weeding, mulching, topdressing etc.* Just sow the flat and stash it outside on the picnic table or wherever your dog won't grab it or your snowblower won't hit it. *Again those are just my thoughts on the winter sowing process and in now way am I trying to gainsay the method recommended by others.* Don't worry about it, WS is very incredulous when you hear about it--you like to direct seed in your garden. I do both. I have a veggie garden and direct sow many of my leafy greens. Many posters do any or all of WS, DS or GUL. *I just have a terrible time trying to start seed indoors, and so I've amassed, what I consider a ALOT of seed packets, that are waiting to be planted but due to my iffy results starting seeds indoors "6 weeks before the last frost", which here in central OH could be as late as the end of April.* You've come to the right forum. Winter Sowing removes a lot of the frustration that comes with indoor germination, it's a big relief and gives you a gazillion seedlings. Nice plant list, it can all be WSed. Your yard will be a butterfly party. T PS, Did anyone tell you that Winter Sowing can be addicting?

Become a devout practitioner of a non-mainstream religion (or any religion at all, for that matter, but particularly one that isn't one of the "Big Five") Be disabled by chronic illness by the age of 23 and still be at 38 Get married (who'd want me? I sure lucked out) and STAY married for 14 years (some relatives were literally laying wagers at my wedding reception as to whether we'd hold out a year) Graduate second in my class at culinary school and almost twenty years later forget (or just not bother) to eat for days at a time if not naggedreminded Decorate a room that anyone but me liked Not obsess and constantly torture myself about my weight Buy a fixer-upper house and bully ;-) my DH into learning how to fix-'er-up! Drive a station wagon (how dorky can you get!)

Greetings Else (and others) ... ... from another south-western Ontario denizen - in my situation, near London, about half way Detroit/Windsor to Toronto/Buffalo. Hope you enjoy your stay: there's a lot of good talk, friendliness, some useful advice and general good feeling (despite some snarkiness from time to time - which one can choose to ignore, if so inclined). And we value folks who have been lurkers adding their ideas and opinions, rather than just sitting and quietly absorbing. As I went into the bank just now, it was starting to "spit" a bit ... when I came out (another story - see my thread) it was raining. But, as I said to someone just going in ... some of us have been "all wet" (or said to be so) for years. ole joyful