All the Dirt on Gardening

Planting seeds outside during the winter is essential for success with many plants, ideal for others, and just plain convenient for some. Seeds that need cold treatment (cold stratification) include the ones with protective coatings, native wildflowers, and cold-hardy perennials. The instructions for seeds such as Pulmonaria and Achillea say to try to start them at 60-degrees but if that fails, chill the containers. Or, chill them at the beginning. Go to the website http://tomclothier.hort.net for a list of seeds’ requirements. Three cold-treatment methods that work include: 1) Plant in recycled containers that are monitored outside; 2) Pre-chill the seeds in the refrigerator; and, 3) direct sow the seeds on prepared beds that are either open to the elements or mulched. Flowers such as Poppies, Larkspur and Nigella are planted directly on top of prepared soil now. These and other deeply rooted flowers rarely do as well if they are transplanted from containers.  ...

Poppy seeds ready to plant in November You can provide cold stratification for seeds of annual flowers by putting them in the freezer or the refrigerator but I prefer to plant them Thanksgiving week so Mother Nature does the work for me. This is the time to plant Poppy seeds, Larkspur, wildflowers, swamp milkweed and many others. They seem to thrive with cold, moist, freeze and thaw stratification. The photo is our bag of the poppy seeds we collected and cleaned. This afternoon we are going to fill that gallon bag with soil-less potting soil that has been mixed with additional peat moss. Then, we are going to disturb the ground in various places on our 2 acres, sprinkle the mix on the disturbed soil and pat it down to discourage birds and squirrels. The peat, perlite and pressing the seeds in seems to really help reduce the eating. For more see http://www.hamiltonnativeoutpost.com/stratification.html Many many perennial seeds need cold stratification to germinate the...

There is still plenty of time to sow seeds outdoors, even in this weather in January. You know you can plant perennial seeds all winter - shrubs and trees, both woody and herbaceous (trunks and twigs all winter or die back to the ground in winter). Here's my Jan 2014 column about how I do it. And this one from Jan 2012 has more suggestions of seeds I started that year outside in the cold. Collected seeds for winter sowing Wow! Look at this one from Garden Tenders dot com  with a fancy vent! So far this winter I have half a dozen containers and three flats out there freezing their little seeds shells off. It's been too busy around here to do more but I have big plans for February. There are dozens of plants that are considered single-year or annual plants that would work. Green Roof Growers has a post about their success, with links for Chicago gardeners. In fact, WinterSown dot org has handy lists of what you can plant outdoors - Here is their Hardy Ann...