Experimenting with seed starting
As I think about starting a garden on our new homestead I realized that the winter lasts for quite a long time here in the high desert. The last frost date is typically not until June for zone 6B according to the Farmers Almanac. In California ( zone 9)I would be fully ingrained in planting a garden by then so now I have to adapt my gardening style to be successful with this short growing season for my new home.
I am currently experimenting with winter sowing in containers outside ie: milk jugs or other assorted recycled containers. I did this technique in California and it worked well so im hoping it will work for me here as well. However, it is much colder here on a consistent basis than it was there so we shall see.
My plan is to have perennial herbs and flowers cold stratified and established already by the time spring hits so that I can plant them out in my new garden beds.
In the future we plan to build a walapini ,which will add extra protection for the plants during winter so that I will not have to improvise quite so much or wait so long to start seeds.
Until then I will be attempting to start seeds indoors as well as winter sow outside. I have sprouted some broccoli and turnip seeds on a wet paper towel to see if they were still viable since I’ve had the seed packets for several years. Low and behold they’ve sprouted! So I will pot them up in soil and most likely put them outside undercover to continue growing. Fingers crossed they’ll continue to grow. The long and short of it is I will need to keep experimenting with my gardening techniques until I know for sure how to become successful in high desert gardening no matter what the season.
Many of the containers I planted seeds in are beginning to sprout so it seems my winter sowing experiment in this climate is working so far. I did make a mistake with the broccoli sprouts I mentioned above. I put them outside after I had already sprouted them inside. They didn’t make it so I put more seeds in jug and left it outside so if they sprout they will be hardier.
I will also be trying to start seeds inside with grow light we ordered and a heat mat. I’m going to try tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and squash since they need a longer growing season than we have here. I would also like to grow birdhouse gourds and Job’s tears to utilize for craft making. My hope is to get a head start on them so they are well established by the time of our last frost which the weather charts say is after June 1st.