Sowing the Seeds the Winter Sown Method

I got started on my Winter Sown project today. First, I took the cleaned milk jugs and put a little slit at the bottom of the jug, on all four sides, for drainage.

Then I cut the jugs around all the way to both sides of the label, being careful to leave the label intact, to act as a hinge. I used the middle of the label as the guideline for where to make the cut. After I cut around, I carefully bent the jug open, creasing the plastic and label so I could have access to put in the soil and seeds.

The Winter Sown site suggests putting a label on the bottom of the jug, as well as the side. I decided to hedge my bets and also put one inside the jug.

 

I decided to mix a little perlite into my potting soil, for aeration.

  

I didn’t put all the seeds from each package in the container. I saved some back. Again, hedging my bets, in case I have some failures here, I can try again. Some of the seeds were distinctive and I have decided will look nice added to my stillroom book. Adding the seeds will make a nice addition also, as I am adding the pressed flowers, leaves, stems and whatnot to my book of each herb .  My friend Anke wrote a guest blog post about making a stillroom book here.

  

The jugs all sealed up, I decided to put them in a wind protected spot, and in a box and crate that wouldn’t hold water and flood them. I didn’t want to take a chance on the wind knocking them over, because believe it or not, we are expecting 40 mph winds and it is snowing! A far cry from out pretty weather two days ago, when the bees were out! Plus, I have some pretty curious squirrels in the gardens. Maybe they won’t be so apt to get into them this way…

A piece of tape on the other side from the hinge/label and then tape all along the cut, joining the top and bottom together

(had to smooth the tape out a bit more before putting in with the rest)

I wrote down on my wild forage/herbal calendar what seeds I started on this date. Then decided which ones to start in x amount of weeks and so on. I will keep you up to date on how this works out! 

Our winter, so far, has been unusually mild. The Clary Sage has been growing like a weed!

Little baby Clary’s everywhere also. The ground ivy, st. john’s wort, and the different mints have been growing too. I think they are in for a shocker with our weather change…

Herbal and Honey hugs to all who visit Comfrey Cottages xx