Winter Sowing

 I used to start seeds under lights but very few made it successfully into my garden. One year I tried hardening them off in a "mini greenhouse" and fried all of them. VERY UPSETTING. Then my husband took all my "grow lights" and used them for lighting in his workshop area of the garage. 

A tree fell on my garden in 2015 or 2016 and then I got distracted by the Cubs and hadn't gardened until last year. After the Cubs, I was distracted by my mom's failing health. She died July 2020 from old age basically. 

Then in 2021 wood was so expensive we only built two raised beds for the garden. Here's one of them. 

This year my husband has built two more big beds, two smaller beds for blueberries and a strawberry tower. He also finished the fence (sorta) but has taken it apart at garden entrance again because it wasn't to his liking. However, he's about done with that and then just needs to put up the trellis trim on top. 

3rd bed in progress

Soil so expensive too. So first filled beds with cut up tree that was the destroyer of previous garden. This technique called HUGULKULTUR. 

4 BEDS AND A STRAWBERRY TOWER

But this year I tried a new technique call winter sowing and it was awesome. Starting in January I sowed seeds in milk jugs and set them outside. 

Here they are in a moat around the NW corner of our building. Then I moved them to the back entrance. 

I set them down on that black plastic otherwise I'm sure someone would have taken great joy in knocking them off that ledge. In April most had sprouted. 

You don't have to harden them off because they've already been living outside. So later in April I began transplanting them into the garden and the seedlings looked great but then this happened....

to be continued....