HOW’D YOUR WINTER-SOWING GO? I hope you’ll tell us what you planted in milk-jugs over the winter, and what glories (or not) the jugs revealed for you this spring. Here are my successes (among them, ‘Bloomsdale Long-Standing’ spinach, above) and failures: My successes: Lupin, Hollyhock, Hardy Candytuft, Larkspur, Columbine, Forget-Me-Not, Bachelor’s Button, Spinach, Swiss Chard… Read more »
SURE, Centaurea cyanus (above, in my Kitchen Garden) provides charming, long-stemmed, azure-blue flowers all summer long. And yes, it is a magnet for honey bees and butterflies. But these are not the plant’s only attributes. It also offers valium for the eyes, and serenity for the soul. I discovered its tranquilizing properties when I was… Read more »
IF YOU ENJOY THE SCENT OF COCOA IN THE MORNING, why not winter-sow seeds of Berlandiera lyrata -- the fascinating "Chocolate Flower"? I did just that last January. The plants bloomed for me their very first summer. What a cheerful sight they made in the Serpentine Garden here, the vibrant-yellow daisies with red-striped undersides and cocoa-colored stamens born in continuous, July-to-frost profusion. Read more » 
WHEN is a water jug not a water jug? When it's a miniature greenhouse! Yes, the very greenhouse you need for seed-sowing in winter. Although I described this Cinderella-act in an earlier post, you might find it helpful to see the procedure in pictures: Read more » 
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I start my summer garden in January, using a neat trick called “Winter-Sowing.” Winter-sowing is an outdoor method of seed germination (invented by Trudi Davidoff) which requires just two things: miniature greenhouses (made from recycled milk jugs) and Mother Nature. You can winter-sow your way to a beautiful garden, too…for pennies…. Read more »
WANT TO GET A JUMP-START on your veggies and flowering annuals (like the zinnia ‘Violet Queen’ above) without the fuss of fluorescent lights? Plant the seeds outdoors, in the same kind of miniature greenhouses used for winter-sowing. Outdoors, seeds won’t germinate as quickly as they would indoors under lights. But they will sprout earlier and… Read more »
ANY WINTER-SOWING success stories to report? Here, January-planted Thymus serpyllum is merrily growing in its milk-jug greenhouse. Also sprouting in recyclable containers are plantings of Lupin, Larkspur, and Iberis. These and other winter-sown seedlings require the following four things now that warmer weather has arrived: 1. Check for Water. As the weather warms, inspect containers… Read more »
