Wow Colleen you've had great success so far! I don't envy you the backache from all the planting tho! How many Jugs did you plant?
I've always had spotty success with winter sowing. There's always a couple jugs that don't sprout. I Don't know why. Right now showing signs of life are:
Bachelor Buttons
Stock (2 varieties)
Canterbury Bells
3 out of 9 jugs, but I'm optimistic! Hey its still early with night time temps near or below freezing.
Labeling the jugs has been a problem also. They start out legible and by Spring they aren't. I started out by using permanent marker on the jug, switched to permanent marker on long sticks, then to Scribbles on jugs (Scribbles is little bottles of liquid plastic with a writing tip found in craft stores) which peeled off. This year I took advise found on this forum and used pencil on mini blind slats I've been using for several years. Success!!
But the slats were too short to stick out of the jugs. As I was placing a slat in the jug it caught on the taped seam and I had a light bulb moment! I cut the bottom of the slat into a sharp point and used the point to rest the slat on the seam line. I don't know about you but I never get the jugs lined up perfect for taping. There's always some kind of gap or overlap. I use the overlap to rest the slat on so it sticks out of the jug! I just had another ahah moment while proof reading this. You could tape the slat to the outside of the jug. Make sure to place the tape on the taped seam so it sticks really well. I've had duct tape come unstuck after a few months outside.
