Seedy Saturday - Seeds Arriving, Winter Sowing and Seed Saving

I have my first seed order in hand. It's from Seed Savers Exchange and what is in the picture are the flowers. I have several beans and a couple of sugar peas in hand, along with some lettuce. There is another order on its way from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Many of the flowers and lettuce and some of the peas will be winter sowed. Since I plan to cut down on the amount of seeds I actually sow (with optimism they will grow), if my winter sowing doesn't work for me, I will have some backup seeds. 

Some of the seeds will be sent to Montana to my 'seedy' friends. It will be fun to see MY seeds growing in Helena and compare them to how they are doing for me. 

My tomatoes and peppers I will hopefully get from my NCTomatoMan. 

Fingers crossed, I am going to try and not buy from the big box store any plants this coming year. I have more than enough seeds to grow my own and with my seed swaps with friends, I will be up to my ears in different seeds which means potential plants. 

Now it means over the next few weeks, I need to collect some containers for winter sowing. I will probably beg (or buy) some trays from work as I don't drink enough milk to save enough milk cartons for mini-greenhouses. 

But I am excited to give winter sowing a try. For one thing it solves my problem of not having space inside for lights and heat mats - not that I have all that stuff. Secondly, it also hardens off the seedlings for me which I don't do very well left to my own devices. Winter sowing is supposed to provide you with seedlings which are stockier and hardier than those started inside. We will see.

I am also going to try starting some of my beans and peas and transplanting them. Maybe. Like Monty Don and Charles Dowding. I am excited about planting beans this year because of my fall 'experiment' where I planted some bush green beans and got 3 or 4 pickings off them. Which meant 8-10 meals of fresh green beans. I am planning on pole beans as they are supposed to yield more than bush beans. I'll see. 

So now it's do a bit of lettuce picking (yes, I still have a bit in the yard) and preparing to do winter sowing after the first of the year. 

Come on 2021!