Embrace the winter garden magic with Sherva and Karen in our latest episode of "Grow it, Sow it, Cook it"! 🌬️ Discover the secrets to preparing for the upcoming season as we dive into the world of winter sowing.
Join us as Sherva unveils the art of winter sowing, a technique that not only nurtures your green dreams during the colder months but sets the stage for a vibrant garden ahead. We're here to motivate and encourage you to take proactive steps during the winter.
In this episode, we explore the countless benefits of sowing seeds over opting for store-bought plant starts. From significant cost savings to unlocking a diverse array of plant varieties not found on shelves, the advantages are many. We touch upon the joy of growing unique, heirloom varieties, emphasizing the freedom to save seeds for future seasons – a privilege exclusive to your home garden.
Get ready to be inspired and empowered to kickstart your winter garden preparations. Tune in to "Grow it, Sow it, Cook it" for insights, motivation, and the secrets to a flourishing garden that begins in the heart of winter. Happy sowing! 🌱✨
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We appreciate each listener and the growing community we're nurturing together. Your support means the world to us. Stay tuned for more exciting episodes, and until next time, happy gardening and happy cooking! 🌿🍽️
Sherva: I call a couple of my friends this weekend, and reminding them that it's time to start saving their plastic containers, because I will probably start when to sew in, you know, late, probably February, late January, February, it doesn't really matter when you do it. You just get them out the way you get them in your containers, and they just sit, they can sit through the snow, the rain, the cold, warm, and they will just naturally germinate when it's time for them to germinate. So it's kind of something you can a job, you can just get out of the way. And I was so surprised by how it worked last year when I did it. All my flowers I did through winter sewing. And I live close to a Starbucks. So I went over to Starbucks because I used to get coffee there every morning. So the girls knew me. And I said hey, can you guys save me a ton of your arm clear milk gallon containers. And they did they saved me like this big trash bag full. So that's an ideal size if you especially for the flowers because you can sprinkle like half a pack in one of those. And so I did all my petunias or minus stations, and something else all of those that I use on my hanging baskets. They all came from winter so in um, I don't know should we talk about how you how
Karen: Yeah, so I'm really interested because I've never done it so i Okay, I want to step by step. Okay. First I do this Karen that do that Karen Okay.
Sherva: First you collect your containers. So right now, you want to be collecting. Plastic containers, salad containers, rotisserie chicken containers, all of these containers that you throw out, you can save those and, and use them. So say for instance, you wanted to stop broccoli, I did broccoli in those containers. So you would, you could because broccoli grows tall, you could put two of them together so that instead of using the regular flat lid, you can use two bottoms. And so you put your soil down. And I like to wet my soil before I put my seeds. And I like to use a moist soil, because I don't want to have to spray it too much. And then the seeds move. So what I do is I wet the soil, and then put the soil in the container, and then put the seeds on top of the soil and just press them in gently with your with your fingers. And then perhaps sprinkler really light coating over it. So you're not gonna hose it down afterwards. And then everything moves because I spread them out where I want them to be. I don't like when they're all clumped together.
Karen: So, and of course, you have to make drainage holes, of course, right?
Sherva: Yeah, you have to make drainage holes about that. And if you're using it the way I'm talking about with two containers, so then you're going to use clear, it doesn't have to be clear, I like to use clear tape. But it doesn't have to be clear tape, any kind of masking tape, I just don't like too much of the container to be covered by tape. And, oh, you're going to put a tag inside saying what it is. And then you're going to put a tag outside as well. In case the tag outside disappears or washes off, inside, you still know what it is. And outside, you want it outside as well. Because you want to know, you know, you want to know Oh, this is my idea without having to open it so, so I do double sides and in to not waste tags, reuse your tags. Also, a good suggestion is if you have an old blind, you know blinds, you can use those, you can cut those up really thin and use a magic marker to write what they are. And then you know, you're not spending a ton of money on tags. One thing that's not a great deal with the dollar store is tags, you get like 10 tags for $1.25. And that's not a great deal to I don't think consider and I go through hundreds of tags.
Sherva: Um, so yeah, so you tape it back, you tape it all the way around, you make holes at the top so that it can breathe, and then the water can go in as well. If needed, you may only need to water your plants. I don't think I ever had to water any of mine until like April, you know, um, but most of mine were not in containers like that the majority of mine were in milk jugs are like orange juice containers. So despite how what you do with a milk jug you Okay, got it right. Okay, so yeah, if you have a gallon milk jug, you're gonna make holes at the bottom. And about halfway around the jug, you're gonna cut it almost all the way around, but not completely because you want it to hinge. So you're going to have it hinged. And you put you put your soil in the same way you put your seeds in the same way that I said you'd sprinkle them, and you just gently put them push them down with your hands, and then lightly cover it, put your tags in, and you're going to tape it up. Now the milk jug, you're going to remove the lid, you're not going to have the lid on it, and that's going to stay open. That's where it's going to breathe. That's where water is going to come in. Because it doesn't matter if it rains, it doesn't matter. If it snows, it's just going to go through that natural weathering process. And then you'll start peeking down there after a couple of months and you're going to start seeing things shooting up. And the great great thing with winter so in is that you don't have to worry about hardening off yourself. And because the milk jug is pretty tall, you'll if you did tomatoes in there or broccoli in there, it can grow tall enough until it's time for you to put it in the ground. Now once the weather starts to warm up, say in April, you can undo the tape and you can you know, let it get sun and then you can close it back up in the evening if you want to. Or if you know if you're going to have a cold night you can throw a blanket or plastic over it. But um, yeah, it's pretty much going to stay in a container until you're going to transplant it into the ground. It's so easy and I did lots of extras because it was my first time I didn't know if everything was going to germinate. i The guy who cuts my grass I gave him and his wife a ton of flowers because they all germinated. I couldn't believe how well it worked. It was my it was my very first time did anything not germinate. like cauliflower didn't germinate. I don't know why Yeah, my cauliflower didn't germinate. But broccoli germinated, all the flowers germinated, all the tomatoes germinated.
Karen: Then where do you put it, just out into the garden?
Sherva: So I'm glad you said that . I put a lot of my containers in like a big tote, because I didn't want them to get knocked down by the wind and stuff like that. So I put them all in a big tote. But one day when it rained really heavy, because the tote doesn't have any holes. It did. Yeah, it flooded. And you know, when you have a lot of plants and you have to take them in and out to do that, that is such a pain in the ass. Honestly, that is so much work. And I leave early in the morning to go to work and it's too cold to put them outside then and then by the time I come home in the evening around five o'clock, then you know maybe they'll get another hour so it's just too inconvenient to have to worry about so much of them. So I think I'm gonna do as much as I can through winter so in that makes sense. It makes perfect sense. I work from home so it's not a problem. But yeah, sometimes I just forget or it's gonna be overcast and so I'll put them out there longer but then all of a sudden this the the heat the sun's comes out and I wasn't expecting it and they get you know cooked so there's all you know there's always something that you don't plan for Yeah, it's like when you have to do to have an office like it we'll go out for an hour today and then take him back in and then tomorrow two hours and take him I don't need to take vacation for a week to deal with that. Right Yeah, I don't have time for that but I'm gonna have to do it for some of them for some of them last year I'd be calling my neighbors he can you can uncover this means stuff like that.
