Valentine: thanks for those detailed tips! So you suggest I put the rosemary on the windowsill inside or outside? And if I wrap it with bubblewrap, do I wrap the plant too, or just the pot? (It's an old giant tomato sauce can from Lombardi's Pizza) Oldrose: My window faces southwest, but because of all the buildings around me (I'm on the second floor) light doesnt last very long :P So I'm in California now guys, San Jose visiting some old friends and it is COLD out here! Something is really up with the weather--this past month has just been World Natural Disaster Month. For the love of Al Gore, let the government set standards already and stop this madness! I came out to Cali for a tan!!! ;)

I've watered and covered my tomatoes and peppers. I'm not worried about anything else. I just don't want the tomatoes to be stunted by the cold. Oh, and I had a coleus plant overwinter in the greenhouse this year. It was a volunteer in my pot of sage and I figured it wouldn't make it through the winter, even in the greenhouse. Obviously, I was wrong! If we keep having winters like this, I'm going to look into more plants.

Bag them and put them straight in the freezer. They'll last at least a year. They go a bit mushy when they thaw out, so I make sure I cut mine up when they're still frozen. You can't tell the difference when they're cooked.

The main purpose of winter sowing seeds is to give those seeds needing stratification a required cold period required to break dormancy. Many seeds have this as a 'safety' device to prevent early germination. Seeds that require only warm moist conditions will germinate when its warm so those should not be sowed outdoors until later winter or early spring, especially if they are tender plants. You have seeds coming up that obviously do not require stratification and its possible you sowed them too early for southern zones. Unless you want to bring them indoors and then out again all winter, I'd suggest resowing any seeds that don't make it outdoors later on, time will tell if they make it outdoors or not. I direct sow hardy native annual and perennial seeds in fall. These are cold hardy plants that germinate naturally in fall, some germinate best in cool temperatures and won't germinate if its too warm. They spend winter as small green plants and are ready to take off in spring in nature. Tender plants are a different matter. These plants will not survive cold but you don't indicate what kinds you sowed.