The wintersown containers are still living in the mini-greenhouse. I’d like to move them out soon to make room for hardening off the peppers and eggplants as well as starting larger containers/flats of herbs.

So far I’ve had good luck with most of my wintersown seeds germinating by now. The cosmos, cleome, peashrub, and tall asters have not germinated, but I believe that may be the caused by cool temperatures and older seed.

As this is my first year wintersowing, and also since I have limited prepared garden beds I’m not sure when I should transplant them. They’re still quite small and they have a good 3"-4" of soil in most flats. I seem to recall something about transplanting them at an earlier stage than indoor grown seedlings.

For future reference, my favourite/most successful so far wintersown plants are: yarrow, parsley, johnny jump-ups, liatris, poppy, and alyssum. I’d definitely wintersow them again, and perhaps in larger quantities. The others are doing well too, these are probably just the most advanced seedlings.

Overall, I’m sold on the concept of wintersowing! I used inexpensive potting soil (compared with seed starting mix for my indoor starts), repurposed containers saved by family and friends, and was not limited by the space under my florescent lights. I know these are all benefits I’d read about before, but I’d just never made it to trying the technique out. As I have much more space to fill in the coming years, I think wintersowing will be my method of choice for bedding annuals, perennials, and some herbs. I’ll still start my veggies indoors as my wintersown tomatoes are leaps and bounds ahead of those I tested for wintersowing.

I’m updating photos for the plantings and using the true leaves milestone. I can’t remember which ones I logged as sprouting, but this should bring everything up to date.