Winter Sowing

I just heard about this method today and I absolutely love it! I'm definitely going to try this for an extra early start in spring.

I often find it difficult to establish seedlings by mid-late March even in my warmer climate. We have a hoop house, but it still gets cold! There's no room for starting them inside our home, either.

This method uses inexpensive milk jugs as mini greenhouses that warm up much more efficiently for germination. This method also allows seedlings to harden off by themselves in the milk jugs, with no complication on your part of moving them around.

To me, they look pretty pest-resistant, too! That's important to me since hungry bugs are usually waiting on the ground to eat my brand new seedlings in spring.

From the guide:

"By using miniature greenhouses and winter sowing, our seedlings can survive freezing temperatures and be ‘cold’ hardy by early Spring! So, there is no ‘hardening off’ of young seedlings as you have to if started indoors. They are ready to plant in the ground directly after the last frost date."

Take a look at this and let me know what you think!

Ultimate Winter Sowing Guide – Step by Step (w/ pictures)