Winter Sowing

My first venture into winter sowing is now underway. I used this booklet as a guide as I prepared my containers and sowed the seeds. As you can see, I made a bit of a mess but with the rain we had over the weekend, the mess is now all gone.

You can also see in the background that we will have snow on the ground. In some parts of the country, it is too late for winter sowing but, alas, in Minnesota, there is still time.

I have located a few more containers lurking in my stash of recycleables, so I may be adding to the collection. And since we have more snow in the forecast this week, it seems I won't be running out of time to winter sow for awhile yet.

It may sound like I am complaining about the snow but it is providential, actually. We took a chance and booked a ski vacation for spring break. The snow this week ensures that we will have good skiing while on vacation.


In other news, I have another great experiment in the works. I found a potato in the bottom of the pantry that was sprouting. So I cut it into a couple pieces and potted it in a container to see what would happen. Well, it is growing like gangbusters. I doubt I'll end up with any new potatos but it was fun to see what a potato plant looks like.

On the fiber front, I have recently resurrected an old passion for cross-stitch. I've been working on a small project in my spare time. I am also plugging away at cotton wash cloths. After listening to numerous complaints by my Hubby about the state of most of my kitchen linens, I've decided to replenish my hand-knit washcloth stash.

I've chosen a new pattern from Lily's Sugar'n Cream pattern website (you have to log in to see the pattern but membership is free) called Feather & Fan Dishcloth. It has a lovely ribbed texture that will work well for all the scrubbing we have to do around here.

Well, off to finish school with the girls and check in on all my little seedings in their various and sundry locations. Ironic how homeschooling and growing seedlings are so similar. They both require almost constant attention!

If a picture is worth a thousand words . . .

Here are a 8 thousand words for your enjoyment.

Seeds are growing well. This weekend I plan on winter sowing more, and transplanting the bigger plants into real pots. With the warm weather this week, spring fever is reaching a peak.

Come on, snow, MELT!

Trellis follow up

Sorry about the delay. Life - you know - ummm, well, anyway.


Here is the next step. Now, the book tells me to glue the joints with pvc cement. I bought the supplies to do it but I am thinking about not gluing the pieces together. Just drilling some holes and screwing them together. The advantage to me is that I can disassemble them later. If something gets damaged, I can easily replace the broken part.

However, living in a climate that is prone to severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and blizzards means these should be very sturdy to stand up to strong winds. Would the joints be strong enough with just a few screws through them? Then again, nothing will stand up to a tornado anyway . . .

Any thoughts, friends?

Finally, the trellis sheet will be screwed to the frame. I am making four of these so far. I have several ideas on where to put them. I do need some vertical growing space in my vegetable garden this year, since I plan on growing peas, beans, ornamental squash and cucumbers vertically. However, these are so cute, I thought about lining them up along the side of my garage and training some flowering vines up them instead.

I am excited to get these finished and in the garden. Just got to wait for the ground to thaw enough to dig the holes.

Oh, and I found a plan for pvc garden furniture. The old grey cells are percolating away . . .