by Roxanne Finn, The Conway School
On a blustery midwinter day full of blotted gray skies salted with snow flurries, I stood in the cozy conference room at the Conway School, my hands plunged into warm, humid potting soil, the eucalyptus-like aroma of mountain mint drifting through the air. It was my first attempt at winter sowing, and I was loving it.
My introduction to the winter sowing technique came by way of Elaine Williamson. In addition to being the Conway School’s event coordinator, alum liaison, registrar, and librarian (it’s a small operation), she is also a class of 2011 alum, a Master Gardener, and founder of Elaine’s Plant Swap, a local plant share that she ran for decades before finally retiring it last year. During one of our staff meetings this past fall she mentioned that a faculty member had asked her to lead a workshop on winter sowing for this year’s students. “What’s winter sowing?,” I asked, picturing students scattering seeds on a crunchy patch of frozen earth. I was sorely mistaken, and as I listened to her explanation, I became increasingly intrigued.
This practice of winter sowing gained attention as an alternative to the better known method of indoor seed starting. Back in 2000, a woman named Trudi Davidoff didn’t have room in her small house for all of the trays, shelves, and grow lights required for indoor starts, so she developed a practice of sowing seeds in small containers outdoors, creating a collection of tiny greenhouses that allowed the seeds to germinate in a way that more closely mimics their natural process. Taking a page from Earth’s playbook often works well, and for those of us who lack the space, funds, or time for a backyard greenhouse or cold frame, this might be the perfect solution.
I joined a group of about fifteen students for the workshop. The first thing we all noticed was the feel of the room as we walked into it. The lush smell of the potting soil and the accompanying summerlike humidity made the space feel like a pop-up greenhouse, exactly what one craves in the middle of a January Arctic blast. It was an instant mood booster.
One of the perks of winter sowing is that you likely have many of the required materials sitting in your recycling bin. Old gallon milk jugs and those plastic clamshells used to hold salad greens make excellent containers. Watering cans can be made by poking some holes in a liter seltzer bottle. Old venetian blinds and plastic cutlery knives make excellent labels. It’s upcycling at its finest.
Elaine guided us expertly through the process, which is refreshingly unfussy. Winter sowing cuts out all the middlemen of indoor seed starting, which can be equipment-heavy with grow lights and heated mats. It also avoids many of the pitfalls. “You don’t get leggy seedlings and you don’t get damping off, and those are the two things that kill your indoor sowing,” she said.
The winter sowing technique works well for many types of seeds. Perennials can be sown as early as the winter solstice, and the containers give the seedlings a head start and remove any competition from pests and neighboring species, resulting in a robust plant. Elaine recommends waiting until later in the season to sow more tender annuals such as tomatoes.
As a program focused on ecological design, we have quite a few opportunities to harvest our own seeds, starting with our campus landscape, which is maintained by Conway employees. Many of our faculty and staff, including Elaine, have magnificent home gardens, and enjoy bringing in their extras to add to our in-house seed library. This year the students also had the opportunity to harvest seeds during a field trip to the homestead of Todd Lynch, a local alum whose work melds landscape design, visual art, and education.
We excitedly ruffled through the labeled packets, enticing visions of the summer’s bounty filling our heads. Elaine smartly advised us not to get too ambitious on our first attempt, so we limited ourselves to a few containers each.
Another advantage to the method: Because the containers are placed outside until spring and subject to the typical freezing and thawing that occurs during the cold months, there is no need to stratify or scarify the seeds prior to sowing. Just make sure they’re well-watered, and winter will do the rest for you.
Once you’ve assembled the containers, it’s also remarkably hands-off. According to Elaine, there’s no need to start checking on the plants until the days get longer and warmer, which is usually sometime in March or April for us in Western Massachusetts. Thinking back on my daily indoor sowing schedule of watering and turning lights on and off, as well as lining up someone to take over if I went out of town, this method sounded like a breeze.
There are a number of online resources for winter sowing, so if you don’t have a resident expert like we do, there’s no need to go it alone. Several university extension programs feature it, and there’s a 160,000 member-strong Facebook group called “Winter Sowing – The Original” that’s great for finding information and asking questions.
That, in a nutshell—or, more accurately, a plastic clamshell—is the beauty of container winter sowing. There’s no need to hover and baby the plants, or to spend a fortune on growing gear, and that makes for a more relaxing experience that’s particularly well-suited to people just starting out on their seed starting journeys. “Because it’s free and so low-maintenance, I don’t worry about it,” Elaine says. Plus, as it’s a true augmentation of the growing season as opposed to the creation of an artificial environment, the success rates are higher for novice gardeners. “It’s a pretty simple process, and it’s really rewarding,” she says. “Anybody who’ll listen, I’ll tell them.”
If you’ve never tried winter sowing before, you can follow along with the video from our workshop, which is on the Conway School’s YouTube channel. Please add your feedback and questions in the comments!
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Roxanne Finn is the Conway School’s Admissions Manager and has been exploring the intersections of creativity, culture, and planet since 1994 as a scientist, teacher, educational administrator, designer and parent. Beginning her career in geology, she then taught English and developed educational programming for students and institutions in Japan, Italy, and New York City. During her 15 years at Hampshire College in the neighboring town of Amherst, she co-created multiple experiential, project-based design and entrepreneurship programs. She is also certified in permaculture design and enjoys combining her passions for building and landscaping, serving on the Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity Landscape Committee and experimenting on her small homestead in the hilltowns of western Massachusetts.
Elaine’s Winter Sowing Tips:
I spoke with Elaine before the workshop in an effort to better understand the advantages of the winter sowing method, and to pick up any good tips and tricks that she’s learned over her years of doing it. As one would expect, she had quite a few.
- If you have plants that don’t like to be transplanted, line the container with newspaper before adding soil to keep the roots from being disturbed.
- Sow only one seed type per container.
- Make sure you water well! The kiss of death for this is drying out.
- Label well both inside and outside the container.
- Place containers in dappled shade, in a safe location away from any building-related microclimates.
- Transplant seedlings once they have 2-3 sets of true leaves.
