Unstuffed: Winter Sown

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Winter Sown

Last night, with a glass of wine and a soundtrack that included this bit of dreamy awesomeness,

I winter sowed some seeds.

I started with just a few flats last year. Only the chamomile did really well. This year I'm trying again, sticking mostly to self-sowing natives and other hardy perennials that are well adapted to the climate, naturally drop their seeds in the fall, endure the long winter and germinate the following spring.

I suspect many gardeners would classify most of these plants firmly in the weed category and wonder why in the world I would go through the trouble of purposefully cultivating them. Well, as much as I love vegetable gardening, herbalism is fast becoming my first love, and these are all medicinal herbs. I am particularly hoping that the boneset and Queen Anne's Lace seeds I saved will be successful.

The blue boxes around the neighbourhood are an excellent source of mini greenhouses. Sadly, it's all too easy to fully equip myself with these takeout tubs. The roast chicken containers work great though. If I take care of them, I can keep them out of the waste stream for another couple of years and save myself the impact and money from buying seed starting trays.

The trays get thoroughly cleaned with hot, soapy water. I use hydrogen peroxide for good measure to prevent the spread of plant disease, mold and fungus.

Seeded, labeled, lidded and ready to go outside.

The next morning, already under a layer of snow.

Good luck little, baby seeds! I hope to see lots of you in the spring.

5 comments:

Urban Girl said...: Love this! What a great idea!

Good luck little seeds!; January 30, 2011 at 9:38 AM
Wendy said...: I tried this, Amber, and was pleasantly surprised! Had great luck with squash seeds!; January 30, 2011 at 11:17 PM
Amber said...: Thanks Urban Girl. I'm so excited to see how they turn out!

Wendy, it worked with squash seeds? That's great! I still have a few more seeds that I'd like to winter sow. Maybe I'll try some squash and other veg.; January 31, 2011 at 11:30 AM
df said...: Very nice post, and I'm so with you on reusing those roasted chicken containers! The idea you're exploring with winter sowing is fully fleshed out in the Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman. In this region it's fully possible for us to grow vegetables year round through the use of simple cold greenhouses - basically a double layer of protection for cold hardy plants (root veggies, Asian greens, some lettuces). I'll be blogging about our winter gardening efforts this year and have linked this comment back to my first posting on this topic. Thanks for sharing your efforts - very inspiring!; March 1, 2011 at 7:35 PM
Amber said...: Oh cool. My awesome dude guy has the Eliot Coleman book. I'll have to steal it from him and check out his technique.

The site I linked to in the post has been a great resource for me.

Any info on extending the season is great to know!

Cheers,
Amber; March 2, 2011 at 4:03 PM

Raison d'etre

In 2008 I didn't buy anything new for the whole year. Food and basic toiletries (but not toilet paper) were the obvious exceptions (twice I broke my own rule). Used items were allowed, but I tried really hard to reduce consumption as much as possible.

I finished my year successfully, and along the way learned a lot about how much the world consumes, the waste we produce, sustainability, voluntary simplicity, climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, the water crisis, the food crisis, voting with your dollar, voting with your fork....

Now, I've transformed into a slightly nutty, very passionate, gardening, preserving, DIYing, simple living, nature loving, weed eating, backyard medicine making, urban homesteader, and I still don't use toilet paper!

With the help of the Awesomedudeguy (ADG), I'm continuing my exploration of living lightly and frugally, while increasing my self-sufficiency and resiliency, staying debt free, and preparing for a climate changed, resource depleted world, in uncertain economic times.

My nothing new restriction is lifted, but I continue to be a gentle, local consumer as much as possible.

My hope is that some of the information and resources I post about here will be helpful to others. Thanks so much for stopping by !

Yours in unstuffing,
Amber

"Forgive me if I never visit. I am from the fields, you know, and while quite at home with dandelion, make a sorry figure for the drawing room" ~Emily Dickinson

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that.... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature." ~Abraham Cowley

"The laws of nature are under no obligation to cater to our culture’s emotionally charged fantasies of perpetual progress and limitless growth." ~John Michael Greer

"Sometimes we think we are too small to make a difference in this big world. Our actions seem insignificant in comparison to global issues such as climate change and population growth. However, the reality is that action on an individual level is exactly how big changes are made. Without individual and family sustainability, there’s no community sustainability. And without community sustainability, there’s no global sustainability. In fact, earth-wide change is absolutely impossible without individual change.
It really does come down to you and me."
~From Living Sustainably: It's Your Choice

"The universal conspiracy of the silent-assertion lie is hard at work always and everywhere, and always in the interest of a stupidity or a sham, never in the interest of a thing fine or respectable. Is it the most timid and shabby of all lies? It seems to have the look of it. For ages and ages it has mutely laboured in the interest of despotisms and aristocracies and chattel slaveries, and military slaveries, and religious slaveries, and has kept them alive; keeps them alive yet, here and there and yonder, all about the globe; and will go on keeping them alive until the silent-assertion lie retires from business--the silent assertion that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men and women are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop." ~Mark Twain

"It is not enough simply to abstain from theft...We must remember that nothing in this world really belongs to us. At best, we are merely borrowers. It is our duty, therefore, to borrow no more from the world than we absolutely need, and to make full and proper use of it. Taking more than we need, and wasting it, is a form of stealing from the rest of humankind."
~Commentary on Sutra 30 The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali