We're happy to introduce Kevin Lee Jacobs, from A Garden for the House, who will be sharing his gardening tips throughout the year with us. This was first published last year, in 2010, and it's so popular we thought we would bring it back as a "perennial" post!
GROWING IN THE SNOW
Here in chilly zone 5b, I start all of my perennials, hardy annuals, and even certain vegetables in January and February, with no grow lights, no heat mats, and no seed-starting kits. How?
By winter-sowing the seeds. Winter-sowing is a nifty method of outdoor seed-germination (invented by Trudi Davidoff of Wintersown.org) that involves nothing more than miniature greenhouses (made from recycled containers) and Mother Nature. Winter-sowing is the easiest, the greenest, and the most cost-effective way to achieve summer beauty. Learn how to build these greenhouses and start your seeds now, while you're buried in snow!
Kevin Lee Jacobs blogs at A Garden for the House. He was introduced to gardening when he was no taller than a delphinium. Today, his home in upstate New York features formal rose gardens outdoors and lavish window gardens indoors.
