I am about to do something radical. I'm going to plant seeds now – in the middle of winter – and place them in the snow to germinate. It's called winter sowing and, after listening to local gardener Lois Kennelly explain the basics, I'm convinced it's worth a try.

The goal, Lois explains, is to create mini greenhouses from plastic containers saved from fruits and salad greens. The containers are filled with moistened potting soil mixed with perlite or with a commercial seeding mix. (Do not use a purchased soil mix that contains fertilizer or a water retention product.) Seeds are sown into each container and covered with soil to the required depth.

Labeling the seed type is important; duct tape marked with a permanent marker works well. With covers securely in place, the containers are placed in the snow under Mother Nature's care.

The winter sowing method is simple and low cost.  It requires no grow lights or expenditure on extra hydro.  It is ideal for those of us with little indoor space to spare for seed starts.  And it's a positive way to leverage our long northern winters!

Why does winter sowing work? 
Many seeds only become viable after exposure to chilling temperatures. The winter months naturally provide this vernalization, this necessary cold-temperature treatment that promotes flowering.

Winter sowing is an ideal germination method for perennial and hardy annual seeds.  It is especially effective for herbs such as parsley and oregano, cold germinating vegetables like spinach, chard and kale, alpine species and biennials like hollyhocks which need two seasons to produce flowers.

What seeds should you choose?
Trudi Davidoff, who is credited with discovering winter sowing, offers advice on how to read the clues given in seed catalogs. Terms such as "Needs Pre-chilling (freeze seeds, refrigerate seeds, stratify for x amount of days or weeks), Needs Stratification, Will Colonize, Self-Sows, Sow outdoors in early Autumn, Sow outdoors in early Spring while nights are still cool ..." are all clues that the seed type is appropriate for winter sowing.  You can find much more advice about seed selection at the excellent website, WinterSown.org.  Do remember to consider your hardiness zone when choosing seeds. 

For easy-to-follow steps and illustrations, I recommend reading Kevin Lee Jacobs' Winter Sowing 101. You'll note that Kevin uses plastic milk jugs as mini greenhouses.  Many plastic containers will work, as long as the plastic is sturdy enough to support the weight of soil and plants. Lois recommends only using clear plastic containers to allow maximum light to reach the seedlings.

Winter sowing does require a little organization; not all plants need to be sown at the same time. Kevin's updated post on A Garden for the House offers good advice on the best time to sow specific plants.

Winter sowing is definitely something new for me.  Like any new gardening approach, it calls for a little research and a little experimentation.  The USDA describes this method as a way "to foster a naturally timed, high percentage germination of climate tolerant seedlings."  What could be better for our northern gardens?  Why not give it a try?

Visit WinterSown.org for comprehensive lists of perennials, hardy annuals and vegetables suitable for winter sowing.
Browse or post a question on the Canadian Winter Sowing forum on GardenWeb.com.
What is your experience with winter sowing?  Please share in a comment.

Picture a garden resting in afternoon shadow.  The reflected warmth of a refurbished barn soothes blue delphiniums, grasses and peonies in a generous perennial bed.  In the field beyond, tall blooms wait for harvest in the cutting garden.  This willow-fenced idyll is all country charm ...

This is Moss Cottage.



Kate Fraser-Hominick is the talented gardener behind this pretty and under-appreciated garden destination in Thunder Bay.  On the rural property she shares with her husband and two cats, Kate plans, plants and harvests a 4,000 square foot cutting garden each season.  She also grows perennials for resale.  A shop – in that lovely old barn – features chic vintage treasures as well as handmade products sold under her 'Urban Farmchick' brand.

Every visit to Moss Cottage – whether it's to admire the flowers, smell the fragrant handmade soap or choose a new treasure for the garden – is like a balm for the soul.

With the cool weather closing in, I asked Kate to talk with me about her gardens and her approach to growing annuals for cut-flower bouquets.  The interview follows ...

How did you get started with your gardens?

A: We’ve been on the property since 1998 and there were essentially no gardens in existence at the time, but I knew my long term vision was to be a flower grower. Naiv ely I thought, I’ll just turn the land and I’ll plant some flowers and away I’ll go.  Of course I discovered very quickly it would be a lot more work than that.  We had to clear trees off the section of land that has become the primary flower garden.

So I started in a different way than I had planned.  While we cleared the trees, I planted smaller gardens.  I discovered two things:  that we grow rocks really well here and that country gardening is a whole lot different from the city plot I had been used to.  It was really labour intensive getting rid of the rocks and replenishing the soil.  That’s when I discovered lasagna gardening.  The perennial gardens primarily arose in this way.  So I started with smaller beds where I planted a limited number of annuals for harvesting.  The perennial gardens were more for enjoyment than harvesting.

We started to work the land for the big cutting garden in 2005.  A friend’s father donated a discer so that we could disc the land. We bought a tractor and a plow and turned the land and got it ready for planting.

What annual plants do you grow?

A: I like to think in terms of two types of flowers – filler flowers and primary flowers.  Fillers would be things like Bupleurum griffithii (Hare's ear), grasses like ‘Frosted Explosion’ (Panicum elegans).  I do grow wheat as a filler – I love wheat.  A lot of different varieties of nigella (Nigella sativa). Larkspur (Delphinium staphisagria) is an absolute necessity.  I grow cleome (Cleome spinosa) which is one of the primaries, amaranthus, different celosias, ageratum (Ageratum houstonianum).  Clary sage (Salvia sclarea) is absolutely an essential in my cutting garden, and setaria (Setaria pumila), which is a grass [foxtail millet].  I allow the poppies which started here as volunteers to grow wherever they please; it is the seed pods which intrigue me in cut bouquets.

Astilbes, cosmos, sunflowers ... Pretty much any annual I consider, and it does change from year to year.  And then of course when we do weddings, brides often have special requests and we try to accommodate them.  I try not to grow what I would call traditional florist bouquet flowers.  I really like to mix it up with different grasses, and texture is really important.

How does your greenhouse fit in to what you do?

A: In my shop I have radiant floor heating, so that’s where I start all my seeds.  It’s like a big heating mat.  Because I have a glass greenhouse and I heat it with wood, it’s not that efficient, so I really have to watch the weather as to when I transfer the plants to the greenhouse.  I do have grow lights that I use until I can keep the greenhouse warm enough at night to transfer the seedlings.  It really depends on the weather we have in the spring.  Sometimes it’s early and other times it’s really quite late.  We’re hoping to switch to propane heat [in the greenhouse] or at least propane back-up so that the heat will be more regulated. 

I grow the seedlings on in the greenhouse until it’s time to take them out to the gardens. Primarily we look to the beginning of June before we start transplanting.  And I also do a lot of direct seed sowing.

What is it that brings people to the greenhouse at Moss Cottage? 

A: A variety of things, and not really much different than other greenhouses.  I have limited greenhouse space so the majority of seedlings and plants are headed to the cutting garden.  It’s a very small portion of the greenhouse that’s meant for resale, although I do sell some bedding plants.  People are always on the hunt for something different and they just never know what they are going to find [here], so it's not necessarily that they are coming with something specific in mind.  They come to take it in and see what little surprises they can find.

I do grow some varieties that you don’t find in a traditional greenhouse just because they are heading for a cutting garden.  I am trying to start more varieties of different perennials.  That’s my focus in terms of resale – trying to start different and unique perennials that are hardy for our zone.

How would you describe your vision when it comes to your garden?

A: I didn’t know that I had a green thumb.  My grandfather and my father were actually the green thumbs in the family.  At the time they were here and gardening, I had no interest in gardening.  I started out with a small garden when we lived in Winnipeg.  Just a few vegetables was what I thought I wanted to grow.  Then when we moved [to Thunder Bay] I had a larger a yard space and I started planting flowers.  I don’t know that I had a vision. I don’t know that I do now, except to say I am addicted to gardening and addicted to flowers. 

I love cottage gardens and the [cutting garden] allows me to play around with that whole ‘vision’.  I can plant whatever I want, but the ‘vision’ there is in the resulting bunches I am able to put together for market and for weddings.  It’s interesting – when everything is in full bloom, I have a hard time harvesting for the cut flower production because it is just such a lovely vision.  When you are able to grow annual flowers en masse like that, it’s pretty lovely.

Over time, I think my perennial vision has been not just about the flowers, but the colour, texture, and foliage.  This is something I am still working very hard on – having a garden that pleases me from spring through to fall, whether it be from the colour or the flower or the texture of the leaf.  I’m still playing around and experimenting.

You are also a beekeeper.  When did you start tending bees?

A: This has been my fourth summer.  It’s been a huge learning curve.  The reason I became a beekeeper was not for the honey, but to increase flower production.  My first year, I purchased one hive.  I wanted to be a good steward.  I realized that everything I did as a beekeeper had the potential to impact every other beekeeper in the region. It was really important to me to be respectful of those beekeepers and the hard work they put into beekeeping.  I remember feeling very uneasy about everything I did with the bees because I was afraid I was going to do damage or something.  It has taken me four years to feel comfortable and to trust the decisions I make. But there’s still so much to learn. The bees are pretty amazing little creatures.

What have you observed about having honey bees in your garden?

A: The bees have increased the flower production.  I noticed that the first season.  I do believe there was more growth in the cutting garden.

I think I’ve always been someone who is ‘visually aware’ of what’s going on in my garden.  It wasn’t until I became a beekeeper that I became ‘audibly aware’ of what was going on in my garden.  I can pick up the sound of the honeybees in a second.  I’ve become more aware of insect activity in the garden.  That’s been an interesting part of being a beekeeper.

When you imagine your garden in the future – say, in five years’ time – what do you envision?

A: I am hoping to become more efficient as a flower grower.  By that I mean introducing things like hoop houses to extend the growing season and more raised beds. This would allow me to do more weddings.  Most of the weddings I do now are in August and September because by the time the annual gardens get planted and grow, it’s August before I can actually harvest flowers.  I’d like to get the plants out into the garden earlier and grow them a little bit longer.  It would allow me to harvest and take bunches to market earlier and do weddings earlier in the season.  The hoop houses [like row covers] would be out in the cutting garden, using the heat of the sun to warm the ground and extend the season.  I need the longer season in order to plant different varieties and make things more productive. 

But one thing at the time.  With the drenching rains we had this season, my cutting gardens got flooded.  I was only able to plant about a fifth of it.  So I am leaning towards raised beds to deal with that issue.

Better make that really large posies – because this post is about a mix of Tiger's Eye sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) that made a big statement in my garden this year.  I bet you'll want to grow them too.

Now I never grew sunflowers as a kid and I haven't had a lot of success with past planting efforts.  The 6-8 foot plants that grew for me this year – with their tawny sunflower faces nodding in the breeze – were a true delight.

Sunflowers are an annual plant native to the Americas and today, many heirloom and hybrid varieties are available. 

According to the online catalogue at Seeds of Change – a certified organic seed supplier in the US (and my source for Tiger's Eye) – "This mix offers a rare selection of intriguing sunflowers with bronze, gold, and maroon double-petaled centers with single petaled outer rays, and an occasional fully single or fully double individual."

These open pollinated plants are definitely easy to grow in a full sun location.  They are best direct sown in a garden bed in early spring and germinate in 7-14 days.  A plant spacing of 12-18 inches is recommended.  I planted them at the back of a new potager bed in a very fine bark mulch.  They found their way through to the light without trouble and the mulch kept them moderately moist, as recommended. 

I have tried to discover the specific sunflower types that may be included in the Seeds of Change Tiger's Eye mix, without luck.  The flowers ranged from bronze and red to brown and yellow; many were multicolored with a distinctive "eye", which gives them their name. 

Photos tell the story best ...

Each plant produced many blooms; they were a sturdy, long-lasting cut flower. 

Another discovery?  The heads consist of many individual flowers which mature into seeds, often in the hundreds.  The complex structure makes them interesting to photograph.

Tiger's Eye sunflowers are plants that keep on giving, adding structural interest and excitement to the fall garden – at least as far as the chickadees and me are concerned!

Here we are at Thanksgiving weekend – that time for family, grateful thoughts, and good-byes to the gardening season.  Wherever you are, may the weekend bring clear skies and laughter with those you love.

This post is about decorative containers.  Each pot is like a garden in miniature.  Selecting the plants and arranging them for a summer-long display of colour and texture is, for me, one of the best parts of gardening.

I love decorative planters so much, I create recipes for my most successful plantings.  It takes practice to select plants that will complement one another in a container.  That's why I am busy creating recipes and sharing them in The Potting Shed.  If there are containers in your garden, I hope they are full and lovely now.  And that next year, you might try one of my recipes or others that I've linked to.

So what's this about Prada pots?

Early in the season, I took part in a greenhouse tour in my community.  The staff person who guided us mentioned that yellow was the 'hot colour' for 2013.  At the time, I sniffed at this; I have yellow flowers in some perennial beds, but it's not a go-to colour for container designs in my mind.  At least it wasn't.

In a strange and subtle way, as i visited that greenhouse and others, it was the yellow cultivars that stood out for me.  And before long, I was on to yellow as the dominant theme for my containers.

How could I resist the sweet wee blooms of Mecardonia 'Golddust' or the chartreuse leaves of 'Flashlights' Millet, 'Goldilocks' Creeping Jenny, and 'Wasabi' Coleus?  African Daisies (Osteospermum) with their subtle tones found their way into every pot.

What had happened?

Do you remember the movie, The Devil Wears Prada?  There is a memorable scene – you likely know it – in which designer-boss Meryle Streep explains how it came to be that her assistant (played by Anne Hathaway)  is wearing a sweater in a particular shade of blue.  That shade of blue was selected by the colour mavens.  They determined that it would be on the fashion runaways and, in time, in every shop.  It was not accidental.

It's like that in the plant world too.  There are 'fashion mavens' who select the new hybrids that are ready for market.  And we are influenced by them. 

I don't care one bit.  This year, it seems, I love yellow.