Too late to start?

12 years ago

Hi all.

I'm a pretty much a complete newbie to gardening in general. My husband and I just bought our first home, so now I get to garden and am staring at over 24 seed packets (I got a bit overzealous I think!).

Stumbled upon this forum when researching my seeds and am excited!

Question: I'm in MS - 7a technically, but close to 7b. Over the next 10 days, temps will range from mid 50's during the day up to the 70's with nights varying from high 30's to one night or so in the 50's. Can I still try wintersowing as long as I'm careful not to roast seedlings on the warm days? I figured I could move them into shade on those days and/or take off the tops of the containers.

What do you think?

I can't afford to buy light set ups/heating pads etc. this year (and really don't want to go through all that trouble any year!), we keep our house cool to keep the heating bill down, and my husband is not thrilled that I just moved a shelving unit from our shed into our bedroom in front of the window for seeds starting, so winter sowing is sounding great!

Thanks!

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Comments (5)

bakemom_gw
12 years ago
welcome! i'll let the zone 7 people chime in. but...if you need seeds, check out my thread for the newbie seed project.
docmom_gw
12 years ago
Never too late. Sounds like a perfect time to sow almost anything. It's still cold enough that some things that like cold stratification might still be happy. And those warm day temps are good enough to start most tender annuals. The fun part is that you'll get germination pretty fast, while those of us in colder climates still have to wait a few weeks or months. Welcome.

Martha
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aklinda
12 years ago
I am zone 7b and most years I'm just getting started in Feb and it has worked okay for me. This year I was more ambitious and got many things started in Jan. Like many other places this has been an unusually warm winter. I still have some winter sowing to do - mostly tomatoes but I haven't checked out the seeds in local stores yet so......who knows. Winter sowing has been a great and inexpensive way to get lots of tough plants.
ladyrose65
12 years ago
Welcome. I love the story about your shelving unit. (LOL)
c2399
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for the advice everyone. I only had a couple of containers on hand, but I did 3 small containers tonight. I have lots of questions--going to do some searches and will post if I can't come up with anything. Going to hunt down some more containers. Stopped at the recycling drop off but the bins weren't overflowing like they usually are, so I couldn't swipe any without getting into the dumpster. :/

ladyrose - the shelving unit is still in the bedroom AND I added a bunch of pots w/seeds to it tonight that I just made up this afternoon. Turns out I think my husband is more Ok with it than I am--our bedroom stinks like "outside" and dirt. lol.

But it has a huge window and I don't have any lights, so that is where it will stay. Going to try winter sowing, starting indoors, and direct sowing(with seeds that I can do that with) and see what happens. :)

Thanks again everyone!