Sow Seeds In Winter

Yes, you can sow seeds in the winter. You've put your gardening tools away, cleaned up your beds, and started thinking about spring planting. You're waiting to see what gifts you receive for the holidays before you get serious about planning new projects. We're still a few weeks away from receiving new seed and plant catalogs and you were going to wait for those before getting serious about gardening again. But there are still activities you can do outside and preparing new plants is a quick and easy one.

For a little background, think about what's happening in nature right now. Cold weather has set in and killed plants or caused them to go dormant. Flowers dried up leaving behind seeds or pods. As winter progresses, wind and snow bruise and batter the plants and the seeds fall to the ground. The seeds rest lightly on the soil, fill nooks and crannies, and mix with dried leaves in every corner of your yard. Winter snow and early spring rain force the seeds into the ground, fill the crevices with new organic material, and mat down the leaves into a thin layer of organics. As the weather warms in a few months, the seeds will germinate and begin to send small roots into the ground as the new plants spring to life.

You can intervene and modify nature's actions for your own benefit. Instead of anticipating or relying upon a haphazard process of self-sowing, you determine where the new plants will sprout.

Late fall or winter sowing by you works best with plants that reproduce naturally. It also works best with fall bloomers that just recently set seed. Think about perennials like aster, foxgloves, hollyhock, echinacea, lupine, or phlox, and annuals like cosmos, bachelor buttons, delphinium, gaillardia, marigold, poppies, sunflowers, or lupine. There are many more examples, of course.

Most of these plants require cold stratification of their seeds. Many seeds, particularly perennials, require a period of cold and moisture before they can germinate; cold stratification is this period of cold and moist conditions. You may have read or heard about simulating this process by putting seeds in wet paper towels, sand, or peat moss and keeping them in your refrigerator for a few months before you plant in spring. I suggest the best conditions for continual success in your garden is to actually use the weather conditions in your garden.

Begin by collecting your seeds. Snip your hollyhock pods into a paper bag, pluck your marigold flowers and place them on a newspaper, scrape sunflower seeds into a clean jar. Separate the dried petals, pod skins and other debris from the seeds. If you're ready to sow you can take the seeds right back outside; if not, place them in an envelope, bag, or jar until you are.

Preparation of the soil and garden bed isn't as much work as typical spring planting. It's as simple as broadcasting the seeds by hand on top of the soil in the area you want your new plants to grow. You will need to clear out excessive mulch, piles of leaves, and large plant debris from the planting space, but once the seeds are on top of the soil nature will take care of the rest. This is about as natural and organic as you can get when determining where plants grow in your garden.

You are at the mercy of other natural forces however. Birds may still swoop in to feed on the seeds. Mice may too. Too wet a spot and they may rot. Not enough moisture and they may blow away. For these reasons and others you'll want to sow many more seeds than you want; you can always thin out the plants if too many sprout. Sowing in a sheltered area may help reduce loss through birds and wind.

For more control, you can follow these same procedures and sow in pots placed outside. Put the pots in an area where they'll receive snowfall and sun. In pots, it's okay to sprinkle a very light layer of sand or potting soil over the seeds just to keep them in place, but avoid covering them like spring-planted seeds. This also allows you do modify the watering profile to help ensure the seeds don't dry out at the critical germination point in spring.

For special fun, especially with children, wait until you have a heavy snow in the heart of winter and throw the dark seeds in patterns on top of the snow. When the plants have rooted and are growing strong in spring you can remember the day you planted them.

Winter sowing is easy, fun and allows you to maintain a presence in your garden at the time of year you need a gardening boost the most. Though the science of cold stratification and germination are the basis of success, there is an art to how you pick the seeds, the area, and the specific broadcast method. If you haven't tried it before, think about it as something new to experiment with. And let me know how it goes.

Yes, you can sow seeds in the winter. You've put your gardening tools away, cleaned up your beds, and started thinking about spring planting. You're waiting to see what gifts you receive for the holidays before you get serious about planning new projects. We're still a few weeks away from receiving new seed and plant catalogs and you were going to wait for those before getting serious about gardening again. But there are still activities you can do outside and preparing new plants is a quick and easy one.

For a little background, think about what's happening in nature right now. Cold weather has set in and killed plants or caused them to go dormant. Flowers dried up leaving behind seeds or pods. As winter progresses, wind and snow bruise and batter the plants and the seeds fall to the ground. The seeds rest lightly on the soil, fill nooks and crannies, and mix with dried leaves in every corner of your yard. Winter snow and early spring rain force the seeds into the ground, fill the crevices with new organic material, and mat down the leaves into a thin layer of organics. As the weather warms in a few months, the seeds will germinate and begin to send small roots into the ground as the new plants spring to life.

You can intervene and modify nature's actions for your own benefit. Instead of anticipating or relying upon a haphazard process of self-sowing, you determine where the new plants will sprout.

Late fall or winter sowing by you works best with plants that reproduce naturally. It also works best with fall bloomers that just recently set seed. Think about perennials like aster, foxgloves, hollyhock, echinacea, lupine, or phlox, and annuals like cosmos, bachelor buttons, delphinium, gaillardia, marigold, poppies, sunflowers, or lupine. There are many more examples, of course.

Most of these plants require cold stratification of their seeds. Many seeds, particularly perennials, require a period of cold and moisture before they can germinate; cold stratification is this period of cold and moist conditions. You may have read or heard about simulating this process by putting seeds in wet paper towels, sand, or peat moss and keeping them in your refrigerator for a few months before you plant in spring. I suggest the best conditions for continual success in your garden is to actually use the weather conditions in your garden.

Begin by collecting your seeds. Snip your hollyhock pods into a paper bag, pluck your marigold flowers and place them on a newspaper, scrape sunflower seeds into a clean jar. Separate the dried petals, pod skins and other debris from the seeds. If you're ready to sow you can take the seeds right back outside; if not, place them in an envelope, bag, or jar until you are.

Preparation of the soil and garden bed isn't as much work as typical spring planting. It's as simple as broadcasting the seeds by hand on top of the soil in the area you want your new plants to grow. You will need to clear out excessive mulch, piles of leaves, and large plant debris from the planting space, but once the seeds are on top of the soil nature will take care of the rest. This is about as natural and organic as you can get when determining where plants grow in your garden.

You are at the mercy of other natural forces however. Birds may still swoop in to feed on the seeds. Mice may too. Too wet a spot and they may rot. Not enough moisture and they may blow away. For these reasons and others you'll want to sow many more seeds than you want; you can always thin out the plants if too many sprout. Sowing in a sheltered area may help reduce loss through birds and wind.

For more control, you can follow these same procedures and sow in pots placed outside. Put the pots in an area where they'll receive snowfall and sun. In pots, it's okay to sprinkle a very light layer of sand or potting soil over the seeds just to keep them in place, but avoid covering them like spring-planted seeds. This also allows you do modify the watering profile to help ensure the seeds don't dry out at the critical germination point in spring.

For special fun, especially with children, wait until you have a heavy snow in the heart of winter and throw the dark seeds in patterns on top of the snow. When the plants have rooted and are growing strong in spring you can remember the day you planted them.

Winter sowing is easy, fun and allows you to maintain a presence in your garden at the time of year you need a gardening boost the most. Though the science of cold stratification and germination are the basis of success, there is an art to how you pick the seeds, the area, and the specific broadcast method. If you haven't tried it before, think about it as something new to experiment with. And let me know how it goes.