Susan, Oh, okay, I don't know what I was thinking that you had started them indoors. I'm hoping that I'll get a head start on them this way. I didn't plant quite all of them yet because I wasn't sure if I was starting them too early. Now that our last frost date is about two months from now (April 15), I suppose that I could start the rest inside. My problem is that I ran out of containers and will have to go get some more. I have all of my individual one and two-gallon ones used with my swamp milkweed started outside, and the smaller individual ones have butterfly weed and tropical milkweed in them. Then I also have 3 flats (72 in a flat) with swamp milkweed in two of them started outside and butterfly weed in the other one. Then I also have butterfly weed and tropical milkweed started in cups. I probably am up to close to 300 milkweed plants here, assuming that the seeds all germinate (I put two in each container), and I'm not even done yet. lol Of course, then there's the Chelone glabra, Zizia aurea, Zizia aptera, Heraculeum maximum, Foeniculum vulgare azoricum, and Angelica atropurpurea seeds from you that I have winter sown. I started some snapdragons inside, Blazing Star Liatris, also Agastache foeniculum and Blue Fescue (I suppose I could have winter sown those last two). I'll direct sow my lupines, zinnias, cosmos, and dill. There, I think I remembered everybody. :) I want to try to locate a small spicebush around here. I wonder if there'd be any harm in digging one out and relocating it here at the edge of our yard next to the woods? A sassafras tree would be nice too. Of course, I'm thinking about other plants for next year...I'd even plant a paw paw tree if I knew that I could get ZST up here, but my Butterflies Through Binoculars book shows their range ending around the southern border of PA. There are so many different kinds of butterflies that I'd like to attract here, but I don't think I want to dig up our whole backyard. :) It's snowing a lot here right now. Schools let out at noon today and have already cancelled for tomorrow. I suppose the weather will soon clear up out your way. Come on spring! Cathy

I'm putting a link below to the wintersowing forum faq page. It is a slow time of year there, but many of us still check in occasionally. Regarding wind blown containers... normally it is not a problem for me even here by the windy city. If the containers are on the ground tightly arranged and have enough potting mix that is not dried out they won't blow over. There are tips on windy conditions if you search the wintersowing board. Regarding the mulch. It does help greatly with the weeds and soil moisture. But, it also breaks down and gets other debris mixed in that turns it into a good medium for weed seeds to germinate in the mulch itself. The good thing though is that it keeps the ground moist, so pulling weeds is much easier. You will have less weeds with mulch than just bare ground, but it won't be weed free and no maintenance I guess it what I was saying. If you have tightly spaced healthy desirable plants they will mostly out compete and shade out the weeds whether you have a thick layer of mulch or not. My ultimate goal is to not have to buy mulch. I am trying to leave as much plant debris in place as possible and just chop it up a bit. I rake leaves into the beds a few inches deep. If I could chop them up it would be better. I use grass clippings sometimes too. It is not too late to sow annuals that don't need cold in containers or directly now. Due to bad weather I am running late this year. I am going to direct sow some zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, dill, and a few others this week. I know what all these seedlings look like so I am able to easily weed out anything else that pops up there. That is one of the keys to direct sowing because anytime you disturb the soil and keep it moist for your seeds to germinate you are also creating the ideal condition for weed seeds as well. Wet cardboard and newspaper does work pretty well for smothering existing growth too. Good luck and be sure to check out any newbie seed offers before you purchase more seed this winter. You'd be surprised what you can get. Having a "seeds wanted" list on your exchange page before joining any offers helps adopters/sponsors know what you are looking for too. I think there is an adopt a newbie thread on the seed exchange forum now. Here is a link that might be useful: http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/wtrsow/

Krista, I think Bon and Larry covered it all just fine. I love how we all work together to answer questions. Now, about the peat moss. Peat moss is an odd duck, you know. When peat moss is very wet, it can stay very wet forever, but then once it dries out, it is almost impossible to re-wet it. Knowing this, I was sort of surprised that they recommended it for use in the trench, but the Fall Garden Guide likely was written in a wetter decade when mid to late-summer weather had more rainfall that what we've had in recent years. So, to use OU's recommended trench planting with peat moss, all we have to do is keep the trench and replace the peat moss with something else. There's several options....home-made compost would be preferable, if you have finished compost available. However, if your pile has been really dry and your compost is really bone dry (lots of us still are in various drought stages, so there's plenty of dryness in plenty of places), you might need to put your compost in a container of some sort and soak it down good before you add it to the trench. If you don't have compost, you could use a good-quality soil-less mix. I think that the Miracle Grow Moisture Control soil-less mix would be great for this use. Still, even it can get really dry so you need to start out with it being good and wet before you put seeds in the trench. You also could use the pre-sprouting method where you pre-sprout seeds indoors in a coffee filter or paper towel inside a zip-lock bag and then sow the pre-sprouted seeds into the trench. Since they are pre-sprouted and you're putting them in a trench with a non-crusty soil-less mix, you ought to get little plant sprouting quickly. The screen is for shading the soil. Do y'all remember how we go into so much detail in spring about how warm the soil needs to be for each individual vegggie's seeds to sprout? Well, guess what? The opposite is true as well. Many of the veggies we want to plant for a fall harvest will not germinate in our hot soils, not even if you use the trench and a nice moist soil-less mix when you sow seed. You sometimes have to shade the trench and the ground around it. By shading it, you can reduce the temperature of the soil surface and the soil at seed-planting depth by 20 degrees or more. Most cool-season seeds will sprout better indoor in flats. I like to use bathroom sized cups. I think they still come in 3 oz and 5 oz cups. I tend to use 3 oz in spring and 5 oz in fall because larger cups hold more soil-less mix that won't dry out as quickly when you're hardening off seedlings in July, which is very different from hardening off seedlings in March or April. I cut the bottoms out of the cups so they are bottomless pots, line them up in a flat (I use aluminum roasting pans, as anyone who has seen my plants at the Spring Fling likely remembers) and fill them with pre-moistened soil-less mix. I sow the seeds (at least 2 per pot), put them on the light shelf and wait for the seeds to sprout. Normally, as soon as they sprout....and I mean while they are still just barely sprouted, I move them out to the front porch where they grow from day 1 in morning sun and afternoon shade, but with some protection from the plentiful supply of summertime insects that are out in the yard and garden. Once they are a week or two old and have just a couple of true leaves, you can harden them off to full sun and heat and transplant them into the garden. I like to transplant while they are fairly small because they suffer less transplant shock. Using plantable paper cups with the bottoms cut out also means less transplant shock. It doesn't have to be paper cups. It can be the cardboard tubes from toilet paper, paper towels and gift wrap. Just cut the tubes to the desired length and line them up in your flat and fill them with a moistened soil-less mix. I tend to shade newly transplanted fall plants for the first few days. Shading is easy---a couple of lawn chairs, with one at either end of the area to be shaded, and a piece of shadecloth, an old bedsheet, etc. and you've got it done. Be sure the shade cloth is a couple of feet above the tiny plants for good air flow or they can roast beneath it if you have the shade material just a couple of inches above them. Not only are we really dry here at this time of year, but we tend to be really, really hot and that heat is very hard on tiny young seedlings, so in a lot of ways, it can be harder to get the new plantings established in the heat and the very intense sunlight. Of course, there are some things that are best seeded directly---like carrots, radishes and spinach, for example. My favorite way is to use a soaker hose to get the ground really wet, then sow the seeds, cover them to the appropriate depth, pat the soil down firmly, mist it lightly to help settle in the soil you just patted down and put a board on top of it. My beds are 4' wide, so I normally use scraps of plywood left over from various projects, but any sort of board would work. In the absence of wood, very thick cardboard could serve the same purpose. The wood or cardboard serves several functions--it prevents wind or rain erosion from washing away the small seeds. It shades the ground beneath it and keeps it a little cooler. It keeps small animals from digging up the seeds. It serves as a sort of mulch that helps maintain the soil moisture level. While the soil beneath the wood will dry out, it will dry out a lot more slowly. You need to lift the wood every morning and every evening to see if you see tiny green sprouts. As soon as you see them, you have to remove the board so they don't die. Once you remove it, you need to watch the soil carefully and make sure it doesn't dry out. Then, don't forget the pests. Fresh, young, tender foliage will be very attractive to all kinds of insects, and even to thirsty little critters like field mice, birds, squirrels etc. Remember how very hot and dry everybody and everything is during the months of July and August. So, you can use the lightweight form of floating row cover to protect plants, cheesecloth, tulle netting, or sheer curtain fabric---whatever you can come up with that will keep your young seedlings safe. You also can provide a diversion for thirsty beasts and birds---a flat pan of water (aluminum pie pans work fine for this) so they can find water to drink without sucking the life out of your plants. Once you uncover those tiny seedlings that were beneath the board or cardboard, remember that they aren't used to any sunlight so if you shade them, remember to do the hardening off routine where you remove the shade for an hour the first day, two hours the second, etc. It is really easy to assume that a fall garden is easier for various reasons, such as having fewer pests and decreasing pest levels. That is true. However, getting plants to sprout and grow in July and August can be tricky, so we have to work a little harder at the planting and establishment stage. We usually have a lot less rain falling in mid to late-summer than in spring, but if we just spend the extra time to get the seeds germinated, the transplants planted, and keep the young plants well-protected from pests, we'll have happy, healthy plants going into autumn. Sometimes, depending on how brutal the heat is, you may notice that the plants grow pretty slowly at first, and they do, but they are having to fight the effects of the heat. As the weather cools and the autumn rains begin, the garden will thrive. If you have a lot of trouble with birds eating seedlings, bird netting will work. Or, you can hammer stakes into the ground around the perimeter of the bed and then randomly run light-colored fishing line back and forth in a random pattern (pretend you're making a spider web). The birds won't be able to see the fishing line very well and will sort of fly right into it as they are trying to get to your plants. They'll hit it, it will spook them and they'll go away. Got any more questions? Dawn

@laceyvail: I planted Wando peas because they are supposedly heat-tolerant and I read several sites that they could be planted mid-summer or July 1 for a fall crop. (Packet says "Best in hot weather! ... produce reliably even in hot or cold temperatures where other peas fail.") http://homeguides.sfgate.com/can-peas-planted-july-66553.html Not sure if you didn't notice or aren't familiar with the varietal or if you disagree with what I read? I'm happy to hear your advice/a different view. To update, today I see several zucchini and lemon cucumber seedlings, and one straight neck and wando pea. So perhaps I did okay with the direct sowing/watering. We'll see!