View Single Post
  #6  
Old February 24th, 2009, 07:56 PM
CearaQC's Avatar
CearaQC CearaQC is offline
Garden nut
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Great White North
Posts: 1,511
Depends on what you want to grow really.

You can winter sow hardy annuals and hardy perennials with relative ease.

Here's an blog of what someone else did, so you all don't think I'm nuts talking about sowing seeds and putting them outside in the cold of winter.

http://iwetmyplants.com/2009/01/12/w...sults-of-2008/

Some veg you can do like this as well. Things like Brassicas, which are cabbage, kale, broccoli, etc. as they don't mind a bit of cold. I know of someone who's going to try winter sowing tomato seeds this year.

You can start peas a bit earlier as well, like in toilet paper tubes filled with a seedling mix. But I wouldn't start peas just yet, wait until at least mid March. Then when those pea plants are planted outdoors, you can then put new seeds in the ground at the same time, giving you a successive crop.

Think about it though, it's a great concept.

1. You can sow early. No rushing to get it done on time.
2. All the pots are outside so there's no worry about putting up grow lights with the added cost of electricity.
3. Root balls are much larger and the plants are already hardened off and so they can be planted out much sooner than plants grown in a cozy greenhouse or indoors.
4. You will be replicating nature in a way, allowing the seeds a cold stratification treatment. Some seeds need this cold treatment in order to germinate anyway. Ever read the back of seed packs and they say something like you have to nick the seed with a knife or use sandpaper? By winter sowing you won't need to pre-treat the seed like that because the alternating warm/cold cycles will break down the seed coating and allow it to germinate.

If you have access to fresh manure, you can plant up stuff in a cold frame, and surround the container with fresh manure and give it access to light, i.e. old glass window. As the manure starts to compost, it will generate heat which will provide young plants with a very nice start in life. That is an old Victorian method to help extend the growing season. (Back then they didn't have refrigeration or grocery stores and they had to be able to harvest some fresh food during the cold "starvation" months until the weather warmed up.) You should see some of the elaborate cold frames they used to make. This is how they grew plants like pink delicate rhubarb and blanched ivory sea kale, only they used special clay forcing pots with a lid and surrounded the whole thing with fresh manure and some straw. For other plants they would stack up alternating layers of manure and straw neatly, top off the block with some dirt and sow things like radish, and then cover that with a cloche which is really an elaborate way of saying mini-greenhouse lid. They would prop up one corner with a rock to allow for air flow on the more warmer days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHf3bNWvidU

That video is just an excerpt of a DVD/VHS series that used to be on television many years ago but maybe not in the states. It's easily found on Amazon or similar places online. I always watch the whole series during the winter, to help take away winter blues and begin to think about plants for the next growing season. In the video you can see the elaborate cold frames in front of the large glass greenhouses. But then again that is from a rich country estate, and no every day cottage gardener would have access to such things back then. But today, yes just about everyone can use the Victorian methods of extending growing seasons and pushing the boundaries of plants.
__________________
Sandy Belle Sheeba - born 11/14/07 at 12:30 pm Linx Jasper
Reply With Quote