It’s still a few weeks away from the time to start any seeds indoors – but that doesn’t mean I can’t do garden stuff…

I thought I’d sworn off the Winter Sow method when I discovered seed snails, but apparently not.

As a quick refresh (and for anyone new), I’ve grown (or attempted to grow) plants using the winter sow method on and off for the last 10 years or so (since I first discovered it). While I initially had good results, they haven’t been as great since we moved here. Last year, I managed a couple of small lupin plants, and that was it. After trying seed snails last year, I decided that was the way to go from now on.

But then I got those seeds from the Ottawa Wildflower Seed library.

Quite a few of them require a period of cold stratification. This basically just means the seeds need to be cold for a while before they will grow – which makes total sense for plants that evolved here! Now – I could stick them in the fridge for a while, but I thought why not give winter sow one last whirl.

So now there are four little mini upcycled green houses tucked away in between the raised beds in Potager Parlour. If you cant make out the labels, we have Joe Pye Weed, St. John’s Wort, Hair Beardtongue and Pearly Everlasting. I’ve had that last one in the garden before (in the catio, and the cats kept laying on it) but the others are all new.

Hopefully, using native plant seeds will give me better results with this method than I’ve had in the past couple years.

And in a few more weeks…. we’ll start some seeds snails… LOTS AND LOTS of seed snails!!!

For info on the Winter Sow method – go here

For info on Seed Snails – go here.