Sowing

Last week I started seeds in the basement. I know it's a little early, since the safe frost free date is around May 1st here. The thing is, last year I started the seeds later and was really unhappy with the performance of some of my annuals. I mean, they bloomed like crazy, but in like, September. Not to mention the fact, that the frost free date last year was more like April 15th. So I was hoping to get a bit more size/blooms by starting my seeds a little earlier this year.
I think the seedlings in the picture above are white Sweet Alyssum, and are ridiculously easy to grow (probably could have waited on these). They were a great filler and bloomed all summer, well into late October/November.

In other sowing activing, I'm experimenting with Wintersowing (great Web site). I tried a few kinds of seeds, Cleome, Delphinium, Alyssum, Chives, Sweet Pea. Apparently, you can start just about anything that's native to temperate zones this way. I've read that Delphinium in particular are suited to this type of sowing because they need a period of cold to germinate. For fun, google "pot ghetto," which is what you call your winter sown flats (a rare instance in which gardeners are not PC). Some people sow hundreds of pots of seeds this way with great success.

My pot ghetto is pretty tiny. More of a pot tenement.

-SG

P.S. Here's a pic of the last days of some forced blooms I splurged on. It was really nice to have the blooms, so no doubt, I will be experimenting with forcing bulbs next Winter.