Cold Climate Gardening

Winter sowing, as far as I can tell, is identical to what, in my self-education as a gardener, I learned as cold stratification. The more traditional description of the procedure is to put the seeds in the fridge for the requisite period of time, and then sow them in pots or flats or whatever your technique is for seed starting.

I learned stratification from Lauren Springer’s book The Undaunted Garden: Planting for Weather-Resilient Beauty. Her method is similar to what is commonly referred to as winter sowing now, but she didn’t bother with greenhouse-like containers to protect the pots of seeds. Instead, she covers the soil mix with “one-eighth inch of fine gravel (one or two grades coarser than sand)” and after watering them from the bottom, she puts “them outside on the north side of my shed, which stays shaded throughout the winter. This prevents the seed from experiencing the wide temperature fluctuations of warm, sunny winter days.” They aren’t covered because “The ideal cover…is a blanket of snow.”

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