I’m always looking for ways to stretch my growing season up here in Minnesota, and winter sowing lets me get a jump on starting seedlings—without extra lights! The trick is in choosing the right seeds to start and when!
Late in January, you can find me thawing out some soil to plant seeds. Not seeds to grow under lights just yet, though; I send these earliest planted seeds out into the elements. This is the art of winter sowing! And of course I wanted to share what I’ve learned over the last few years.
Before we get crafting the weird little mini greenhouses that make winter sowing feel sort of like a pre-school art project, let’s go over the basics.
What is Winter Sowing?
Winter sowing is a way to work with Mother Nature to grow plants from seed. You plant seeds in a container and set them outside. They sprout in the containers and are ready to plant out into your garden from there. Trudi Greissle Davidoff was the first to write about the process of winter sowing.
Winter Sowing Jugs planted and outside in February
More Americans are growing their own food – the numbers have been rising and were bumped up with the pandemic last spring, and the trend is here to stay!
Let’s take a tour of the places and faces of our local gardening scene!
Minnesota Garden Organizations
We’re so lucky our state values agriculture in all it’s forms!
The Minnesota State Horticultural Society has a long history of being at the forefront of helping northern gardeners thrive! Their resources include classes, Magazine The Northern Gardener, blogs, Seed collecting and distribution and bringing ‘Garden in a Box’ kits to communities across the state.
Part of the University of Minnesota extension services, the Master Gardener program educates volunteers. These volunteers educate residents in proven, eco-friendly gardening techniques to improve our environment. The Master Gardeners also accept questions via email via the “Ask a Master Gardener” link on the site. This site goes from soil sampling and seed sowing, to preserving the harvest.
The U of MN BEE LAB is another amazing resource for gardeners looking to work with nature and her ultimate pollinating machines. Resources on plant options, City Beekeeping rules and native pollinator trends abound.
Wild Ones is all about Native Plants + Natural Landscapes. They teach people about the importance of native plants, for the health of the environment and everything living in it. Our goal is to get more native plants in the ground in all landscapes — homes, businesses, schools, and more. They have a few different MN chapters so be sure to find the best fit for your area!
Local Plant Sales for 2023
These plant sales will start your garden off right! Good for your garden, the pollinators, your harvests and the community. Plants grown for these sales are never treated with Neonicotinoid pesticides, are non-GMO, locally raised by experts- and the sales directly benefit some great gardening programs.
With 1,000’s of plant varieties this may be the largest single plant sale in the U.S. It is a fundraising event for the Friends School of Minnesota, a small Quaker K-8 school in St. Paul. Plants are grown as naturally as possible, 80% from local growers.
Church of the Holy Childhood 1435 Midway Pkwy, St Paul
Over 300 varieties of plants grown by local master gardeners. The proceeds from this sale benefit the University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardener programs in Ramsey County.
Garden Clubs
Garden Clubs are a great way to get involved with your group of local gardeners. Most hold monthly meetings with speakers during the off season (Sept-April) with plant sales, community garden and other causes they support. Many towns and counties have their own clubs, here are a few I know and love.
The YMCA Community Gardens have raised beds for rent!
Our town boasts some fabulous community gardens. I’ve got an article about community gardens and why they matter. These are places where all levels of gardeners grow together. Some of these have classes, and ‘in service’ times when a more experienced gardener will be on site.
Seed Libraries
A seed library is just what it sounds like, a place where you can “check out” a packet of seeds to grow, enjoy the fruits or flowers of your labor. Then, bring back enough seeds to replenish and hopefully increase the seed stock for the next season, for FREE! More info in the article Seed Saving Starts Now !
Our very own White Bear Lake Public Library houses the volunteer run WBL Seed Library. Join their email list at the website above to stay in the know about packing and class events
The Minnesota Horticultural Society runs the MN SEED project and the pop up Como Community Seed Library are also great resources for local seed.
Many Paths to Eating Local
If you love fresh and local food but not gardening, you can support our local farmers by signing up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and I have a blog post all about some great local CSA options in the CSA’s So Many Ways Blog Post. Or if you’re like me and grow a lot, but not everything your family eats, try shopping our very own White Bear Lake Farmers Markets, starting up the last Friday in June. I have some Farmers Market Shopping Tips for you too. If you’d like to check out more on some specific farmers, dig into my Farmers page, which links to interviews with local small farms.
For more “How To” info, you can always check out the Forks in the Dirt Blog, or Instagram feed where I sift through lots of local food info and have full blog posts on CSA’s, gardening tips, upcoming garden events and recipes for using your harvest.
Whichever way you choose to eat locally, I hope you Dig Your Food! Michelle
Thanks for being a part of the inaugural year of Forks in the Dirt!
I hope you had as much fun as I did!
Writing from the frozen tundra of Minnesota this first morning of 2018 (a brisk -13° F) I know the temperature means no gardening for even the toughest Midwest gals; for example our chickens have also decided to stay inside today. And yet, I appreciate the way our extreme seasons keep me tethered to the cycles of our planet. My love for this earth grows deeper every year I grow food with its help.
The best way for me to use these frozen months is to dream big for the coming year. Being able to cozy up with seed catalogs, look back through garden pictures from the previous summer, think about what we ate and what we wanted to eat more of… Having time to regroup for the upcoming season is a gift; I remind myself as I look longingly at the snow drifted garden beds.
The best way to get my imagination rolling have always been books, and now and online research too.
There is an overwhelming amount of information out there. I’ve gotten lost for hours ending up on the farthest ‘out there’ branches of my original quest… ( succession planting, rotational gardening, clean food recipes, etc) but those times have let me weed out the useless sites and pick the ripest, juiciest sites truly worth our time.
Here are a few of my favorite Links:
Savvy Gardening: regular contributor Niki Jabbour is queen of season extension and one of my gardening heroes. Real Info for real gardeners
100 Days of Real Food: This was where I first went for recipe inspiration using real, clean food- and still refer to it often.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: One of the first books I read about growing more of your own food and the impact eating local can make. Now a website with info and recipes. Plus, Barbara Kingsolver is a favorite author of mine 🙂
Civil Eats: So much information about food systems and environment, all broken down in bite size pieces. If you’re ready to dig deeper they recently listed their favorite food and farming books of 2017 .
I’ll stop there, but if there’s a foodie, farmer or gardening topic you’re curious about, I probably have a link for that. I do have more info links on my Do Good Page.
My personal goals for 2018 include:
*Planning for and planting our doubled vegetable garden space,
*Preserving more of my own food (dehydrating, freezing, fermenting and canning),
*Finding a local sustainable source for organic oats and chicken meat,
*Becoming a better Chicken + Kid Mom
*Finding more of that elusive “Balance”
My 2018 goals for Forks in the Dirt include:
*Meeting and writing about more local farmers,
*Inspiring awareness in the food choices we make,
*Expanding the White Bear Lake Winter Farmers Market.
What are your gardening and food goals for 2018??
Let me know and we can work on them together!
Wishing you many chances to dig in and grow in new ways in 2018.
