grow plants, grow!

Notice the condensation inside these bottles. Its nice and warm in there!

Today I have exciting plans! I'd like to find another 4 or 5 plastic bottles and start seeds for broccoli, a couple types of lettuce, endive and arugula. Well, maybe not so exciting, but its almost like gardening.

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winter sowing results

I've opened up my winter sowing bottles.

From the far left (the ones that grew best are bold-type):
Rudbeckia Indian Summer, Tansy, Delphinium Fantasia Mix
Purple Coneflower, Hollyhock Zebrina, Onions White Portugal
Wild Heliopsis, Dukat Dill, Delphinium Magic Fountains Mix
Onions Sweet Yellow Spanish, Shasta Daisy Alaska, Rudbeckia Green Eyes

Most of these did well. Only two pots have no sprouts: the wild heliopsis seeds that I collected and the Delphinium Fantasia mix.

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winter planting

Finally - I got to this project I've been looking forward to. A dozen milk bottles, a dozen packets of seeds, and a bag of dirt. It felt good to get my hands dirty again. Even if it was in the kitchen sink.

I found this method of planting at wintersown.org, My Skinny Garden, and A Gardening Year and am giving it a try for the first time this year. I have read that it works great for perennial flowers like black-eyed susans, coneflowers and hollyhocks.

I wondered if it will work for any vegetables. I tried dill and onions. I hope to find another bottle or two and try some lettuce later.

I can't wait to see what comes up. I'd love to have a garden full of flowers this year. They get pretty expensive to buy.

Here's the list of seeds I planted:

Delphinium Magic Fountains mix
Delphinium Fantasia mix
Hollyhock Zebrina
Rudbeckia Irish Eyes
Rudbeckia Indian Summer
Shasta Daisy Alaska
Purple Coneflower
Wild Heliopsis (I collected)
Wild Tansy (I collected)

Dukat Dill (I collected)
Onions, White Portugal
Onions, Sweet Yellow Spanish

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S&P

collecting plastic bottles

I'm going to try winter planting this year in plastic milk bottles. (Several bloggers have posted about doing this recently: wintersown.org, My Skinny Garden, Old Roses.) So, since it was recycling day in my town yesterday, I drove around and collected a dozen empty one gallon milk bottles. I have ordered a few types of seeds that I hope will do well with this simple method of planting:
Purple coneflower (Echinacea)
Zebrina hollyhock
Rudbeckia

I'm wondering if any vegetables/herbs would do well:
onions (from seed)
dill
lettuce
beets

S&P
winterplanting

winter seed bottles covered with snow!!!

Nine inches of snow are now on top of my seed bottles. Where is spring????




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S&P

sprouts in winter sown bottles!

I have sprouts in my plastic bottles!!! Lots of them! Its very exciting.
Five of the 12 bottles have nice little sprouts today. They are:

Hollyhock Zebrina, Shasta Daisy Alaska, Wild Tansy, Dukat Dill, and Onions Sweet Yellow Spanish.

Only one problem is that all of the labels on the bottles have washed off. I checked my excessive photo records and with luck came up with the one above with the labels showing. So, not only do I have outdoor sprouts, I even know what they are!

My complete sprouting record is here.

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one week update

This is the one week update for my winter sown bottles. No sprouts yet. No, I didn't expect there would be any yet. Just thought I'd check. I was impressed with all the condensation droplets inside the bottles. Since the temperature is in the teens now (11 F last night!), it seems to be staying MUCH warmer inside the bottles. Grow seeds, grow!!

winterplanting