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| I am a military spouse new to the Hampton Roads, VA area. We just bought our first house and it came with a fenced raised garden (one of the reasons we bought it... we ourselves are hoping to plant shallow roots here, which means I can finally garden!). I am now harvesting my lettuce and broccoli from my first fall planting (I grew up in MA, so the whole fall planting is new to me), with cabbage and carrots coming soon... and lots of herbs planted by the previous owner.
We don't have any southern windows, although the back yard gets great sun all day long. And I have NO ROOM to store lights and trays and shelves and everything else that starting seeds indoors entails (this New England girl is missing having a BASEMENT!!!). So I'm very intrigued by the winter sowing method and think I'm going to jump in head first. I would particularly like to know what EDIBLES you've had the best luck with, especially if you are on the 7B/8A cusp as I am. I do have a butterfly garden, but I've somehow managed to fill it with perennials in the 2 months we've lived here, so I really have no more room for flowers. I am thinking that since carrots and snap peas can be planted so early, and don't transplant well, that I shouldn't bother wasting precious 'jug' space with them. Yes? No? Other things I hope to plant include peppers, watermelon, a few tomatoes, broccoli(didn't plant nearly enough this fall), cabbage, celery, cukes, pumpkins, and may be a few squash/zucchini if I have room (I have 5 beds, 3x16' each) I am planning to use the plastic containers from Sams that our grapes and dates come in that I've been saving because I knew they'd be good for something someday... our glass milk bottles come with a $1.50 deposit, so that's not an option! Any tips or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks! |
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| Hi, MA girl - I'm from MA myself, now transplanted to AL. After 3 moves to get here, I have a lot of sympathy for military spouses! I'm actually squarely in 7B - in the (Tennessee) Valley, where we get frost even before the city 20 minutes east of us. But aren't fall veggies great? I have gorgeous kale & lettuce coming up now, and have radish, Swiss chard, garlic (won't be ready til summer), spinach, and carrots poking their heads up. You can wintersow almost any of the edibles, but I direct sow carrots & peas (and beans). Tomatoes and greens (lettuce, pak choi, etc) wintersow really well; peppers, too, although I start them a bit later. Cabbage & brassicas are fine to WS; cukes, pumpkin & zucchini can be WS too. My favorite edibles to WS are herbs - they all do well for me - rosemary (you gotta love perennial rosemary - reason enough for living in the South!), thyme, valerian - any of them, really, although I 'spring sow' my basil. Good luck, and enjoy! |
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| Hi there! I'm Zone 8 but it's a little different than yours. I agree with everything drippy said, but I also wintersow peas and springsow corn because if our cold, wet springs don't rot the seeds, the crows have a field day pulling them up and eating them as soon as they sprout. I also wintersow onion seeds. |
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- Posted by prvrbs31gal none (My Page) on Tue, Dec 13, 11 at 8:17
| Well, my milk jugs are all prepped (the neighbors have been saving them for me!) and the seeds have been ordered from Baker Creek. I am going to try to WS some of each and then save some seeds in case they don't come up (or to plant next year). My schedule is crazy until the second week in January, so that's when I'll be planting! |
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| prvrbs31gal, isn't Baker Creek a great seed catalog? I received my 1st cataloug from them the other day (2012) and already placed an order for veggie seed and a few flower seed that I wanted. Seems like a really nice family run business! good luck with your new garden Tom |
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| I grow mostly flowers. But wintersown tomatoes do well for me here in Ohio zone 6. I direct sow beets, carrots, and basil. Karen |
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