Winter sowing Seeds

A brilliant way to get early spring spinach, rocket salad, lettuce, carrots and radish is to copy the way the nature does it – make sure that the seeds are planted before spring starts.

Planting seeds in winter – or winter sowing seeds simply means that you start planting the seeds in the winter, when the ground is still frozen and covered by snow. I use my cold frame and raised bed for winter sowing, and this is my sharing of how i do – step by step.

1. Find your winter seeds – in my January sowing envelope I have spinach, rocket salad, lettuce, carrots and radish. Choose a day when the sun is shining on your cold frame.

2. Since the ground is frozen, it’s not possible to dig in it, so cover the frozen ground with new soil. I keep a few bags saved indoors to have it ready for my winter sowing.

3. Make a plan for what to sow where, i use a square foot plan to have the luxury of getting “a little bit of everything” when spring comes. If I had more room in my cold frame, I would to like 3 square meters of spinach, but that Is only a dream for now..

4. Dispose each square – if you do lettuce, rocket or spinach you can plant about 9 seeds on each square foot, for carrots and radishes you can do about 16 per square foot.

5. Put the seeds in, and cover with soil (just as you would do in any season). Remember to mark the spots to know what you placed where.

6. Cover with a bit of snow. When spring comes, the snow will melt and give water to the seeds.

7. Put the lid on your cold frame.

8. Now, go inside and make a big cup of coffee, and wait for spring.

Update, 17th of March

Rocket Salad is the first one to show in the Cold Frame. It’s great to see those little leaves showing! Spring sun has not really been out that much yet, but I’m expecting the Cold Frame Salad to really start growing over the next couple of weeks.

Update, 3rd of April

It’s sprouting in the Cold Frames!

And it’s growing fast!

Update, 14th of April

Winter Sowing Update! I’m happy and are looking forward to fresh Spinach in a few weeks.

Update, 24th of April

Picture Update from The Cold Frame.

I’ve really just had a Window Glass on top of this Grow Bed, but since the Spinach, Salad and Radish are starting to reach the glass – I’m moving my new Cold Frame to this Grow Bed today. (Link to the post where I show how I built the new Cold Frame.)

Update, 11th of May

It’s growing like crazy in the Cold Frame! Have to keep up with harvesting. The Rocket Salad will soon be at it’s end and go into flowering already. I will blame the cold spring for that.