Planting - Update/Winter Sowing and Square Foot Garden

My Winter Sowing has been a wonderful success. A few things did not come up, but I think the seeds I used in those instances can be called into question. The seeds that did not sprout were older, and some came from seed exchanges, and I wasn’t sure about their age or viability.

I am sure that I will winter sow every year from now on. I also will use only the larger sized milk gallons in the future. The juice and soda bottles also worked, but the seeds sown in the milk jugs sprouted and grew better. The stars of my winter sowing are the poppies and andrella asters. I’ve already transplanted the bread seed poppies into my Square Foot Garden. Even though they have taproots, they adjusted within a week, and are growing at a quick rate. The annual poppies I sowed are doing even better. I can’t wait to get them into my garden beds. The Andrella Asters are a huge surprise. The seed came from Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seeds. I’ve tried to grow asters in the past with minimal success. The winter sown aster plants are lush and covered with foliage already. I’m so excited about the beautiful asters I’ll have gracing my gardens in a few months from now.

My Square Foot Garden is producing a bounty of leaf lettuces. I am really pleased with the Black Seeded Simpson variety. This was also winter sown and has been planted out for a few weeks. It is a beautiful chartreuse green color and tastes heavenly in my salads. I am planning to mulch around the gardens soon. I am hoping that it will keep some of the critters at bay. This week there was a gang of five rabbits in my yard. Big rabbits, with big chewing teeth, thankfully feasting on the clover in the lawn rather than my garden plants. I am making up more water balloons today.