Brrr! It was four degrees Fahrenheit with the wind chill when I woke up two days ago in southeast Michigan. The ground was frozen, even if there wasn’t a lot of snow.
Hard to think it’s time for gardening, but it is! For winter sowing gardening, that is.
Which is how I spent my Saturday morning at the Wild Ones Wayne County chapter’s February workshop at the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s Environmental Interpretive Center.
Along with dozens of other gardeners looking to add native plants to their gardens, I planted native plant seeds in soil in milk jugs.
We call them mini-greenhouses.
And they’re now sitting outside in the cold, where the seeds will be protected from the wind and naturally propagate.
This year’s winter sowing includes:
- Agastache foeniculum (Anise hyssop)
- Allium cernuum (Nodding Onion)
- Carex hystericina (Porcupine Sedge)
- Oligoneuron album (Upland White Goldenrod)
- Sporobolus heterolepis (Prairie dropseed)
This is the second year I’ve done winter sowing. In 2024 I had great winter sowing results with Wild Strawberry, Purple Coneflower, Columbine, and Blue Wood Aster.
Have you done any winter sowing in your garden? Share your experience in the comments.
