Better Winter Sowing — Seed Trays in Storage Bins Outdoors
Winter Sowing can revolutionize your gardening by giving you a head start on the growing season. Plant seeds in winter, rather than wait until early Spring, and you'll find yourself hoping cold weather will last! Usually gardeners use recycled food containers for this project, but here's how I make Winter Sowing more efficient using large storage bins and ordinary nursery pots.
If you've ever tried winter sowing with split milk jugs, you know they are a bit clumsy to make and difficult to reuse or store in summer. That's why I put on my thinking cap and came up with a new way to Winter Sow using materials that I can easily stack and store off-season.
I use normal nursery pots and some recycled containers, and fit them inside of storage bins I've prepared for outdoor use. The bins protect the seedlings from wind, pets, and rodents. These will last for about 4 winters before becoming brittle.
I put several holes in the tops and one in each corner in the bin bottoms for air and drainage. I make the holes with a large soldering iron outdoors, but if you don’t have that tool, use a drill or an awl.
Snow and freezing temperatures are beneficial to the types of seeds I plant in my Winter Sowing bins. I choose winter hardy seeds, but you'll be surprised at the number of seeds that work well in these types of containers.
Even if you use plastic jugs in Winter Sowing, you can group them in a storage bin (with drainage holes) to keep them safe from strong winds and people with clumsy snow boots.
As temperatures rise toward the end of winter, be sure to check your bins regularly. Containers with lids will be at least 10 degrees warmer inside in sunlight, so you will want to make sure seedlings don't wilt.
In late winter, bring your bins indoors for a day to jump start the sprouting process. Once seeds emerge, be sure to keep the tops on outdoors if temperatures drop. Here I've used a lid to a cake carrier to warm some sprouting parsley planted in a barrel.
Here you can see how I use bins and plastic storage containers on top larger flower pots to encourage early sprouting. You'll gain about a month on the growing season using these containers wisely.
Here I've used a storage bin as a mini greenhouse over some hardy Japanese mustard. The lid is indoors, working as a plant tray.
This is a photo of my garden in the snow. The red arrow points to a storage bin over a patch of parsley. A hardy herb like this will grow well all winter with this type of protection.
Fresh parsley all winter, what's not to love! Thank you for stopping by. If you'd like to see more of my gardening ideas, please visit my Stephie McCarthy blog.
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Sharlene Laurie Waugh on May 14, 2019
Hello Steph,
Thank you for sharing such brilliant gardening tips! I am perennial gardener (who promotes selecting North American native plants for birds, insects and ecological reasons), but the pointers you offer here certainly will motivate me to grow more herbs and veggies.
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