I'm in your neck of the woods-Nebraska. I use my 2-liter Diet Coke bottles. I would suggest you use milk jugs, orange juice bottles or something plastic to winter sow your babies (seeds). Then in the spring you can transplant them easily into the pots you want them to grow in.

Gardenweed gave a good overview and it's a lot of fun. In the winter instead of looking through seed catalogs and crying you can play in the dirt! Ask any questions on these forums--people are great at answering them.

Heidi

To gardenweed_z6a

if the seeds go by moisture and temperatures as well as by day length I perceive a problem for my wet rainy warm weather here in the Pacific Northwest (8b). We are still getting freezing nights into mid-March if it doesn't rain. Any suggestions?

Marie--the great thing about wintersowing is that the plastic container holds in enough heat to protect the plant. They sprout earlier because the little jugs act like greenhouses, but just like greenhouses they protect them from the freezing air. I'm not in the PNW, though. You might search around for someone in your area here on Houzz that can be more specific. I'm jealous you have a lot of moisture. I have to keep an eye on my bottles so they don't dry out. Learned the hard way one year! (Can you set up messaging so we can message you? You'll also notice behind our userman we've edited in our usda hardiness zone. You might change yours to marie PNW 8b. Hope I don't sound too bossy.) Heidi

marie, what xiangirl said is true. Look around you: the planet is primarily green. Plants/seeds know what to do and when according to their genetic code. Did I have failures? Yup! I didn't lament them because I knew that it was ME who didn't provide them with what they needed to sprout and thrive. You asked for suggestions. Here's one - stand back and let them do what comes naturally.

I'm in southern New England so I live on the opposite side of the continent from where you are. If I look at a map of the Pacific Northwest, it's warmer and wetter than where I live but it's still the continental U.S. Our climate and growing conditions may be different but we're still on the same planet and still in the same country.

I suggest you open your mind to possibilities rather than accept what you've been previously told about growing from seed. I did and have been amazed at (and rewarded by) the results.

Ex: two little old ladies walked down my driveway last year and stood gazing, apparently amazed by my garden beds. I walked out to see what they wanted and answered all their questions about my garden beds. They left--45 minutes later--still amazed.

Ziangirl and gardenweed

Thank you for the advice and ideas. I'll just keep some extra seeds from each and sow the rest with abandon! I'm just hoping inches of rain don't drown the seedling mix in the containers. I've added extra small holes. Xiangirl believe me when I say there is nothing to be jealous of with this much rain. We are having land slides everywhere and even have weather alerts for flooding and landslides. We are checking our slopes in our backyard daily for them or should be. Sometimes we are afraid to look! The Amtrak rails were closed in two places due to slides this year. This is too much rain!

So. Yesterday I didn't even have a comment box to respond in. I was pleased to find it where it belonged this morning. I'm not sure how/where to change the labeling of my zone to pnw8b and definitely do not know how to set up messaging. I'm willing to give it a try. I'm not sure where the FAQ is for guidance on these. Thanks again for the ideas and thoughts.

We had a very wet spring one year and many of my seeds rotted. I learned to put a tarp or other cover over the jugs when we have excess rain.

Hope you remain land slide free.

marie pnw8b, here's some good directions I saved from another forum member describing how to set up your message button. Hope this is helpful as I looked and didn't see a message button on your profile. And welcome to the garden forums.

"Your message button is not activated"

To do this click on:

Your Houzz

Edit Profile

Advanced Settings (left side of page)

Privacy settings

.... there is a list of things you can allow
... look _down_ the list for:

'someone messages me' - and be certain "Every Time" is showing in the box

click the 'Update' button at the BOTTOM of the page to SAVE your changes

I confess we had an unusually wet spring one of my WS years when I actually tacked a tarp to the side of my garage and spread it over my WS containers. Chances are I didn't need to do it but I worried (as we do) about my sprouts. Never lost a single sprout that year. WS sprouts are tough little guys and seem impervious to whatever Mother Nature dishes out. As I mentioned above, I traded for seeds of the perennials I wanted to grow/plant so didn't have much in the way of a financial investment.

So if the seeds are in containers in a green house or cold frame, they don't need to be individually covered by plastic bottles, right?

Without a cover, the ideal moisture levels needed for germination might not be maintained.

Martha