Thanks for the tips... I will definitely look and check. and keep and eye on it. Right now they are safe and will not fly away. They will have shade for the afternoon when the warm weather comes... the other thing I am going to do is to get a cover for the raised bed so they will get protection...

I did another one... this time using some of the self watering pots I got a few years ago... I got the idea for the cover from the Winter Sowing site - This one is taller...

Got the tomato seeds from Tomatofest... so exciting!!!

new seeds always are!!

I'm glad Kassia mentioned Trudi's site. If any new folks haven't found it, it is wintersown.org
If you're wintersowing for the first time, I highly recommend that site for the best source of information. Wintersowing is a whole different ballgame from indoor seed starting, so make sure you cover the basics in your wintersowing- a covered, vented container, good potting mix of adequate (3") depth, free drainage...

Kassia, do you have holes in the cover of that self-watering pot? Assuming you do and it will be constantly watered from the top, will it drain enough from that bottom opening? I'd be concerned that it might stay too wet...

Karen

Karen,
I love the self watering pot because it has at least a 2in space between the bottom of the pot to the actual reservoir ... really cool, but I will keep checking and see what is going on... and yes I did holes on the plastic cover... I hope it works... the seeds on that container are foxgloves and shasta daisies... I lost tons of shasta dailies last year because of the voles.

The flat has Lupines. Hollyhocks, Columbines & Parsley.

Kassiap, how did you get rid of your voles? I have a couple in my yard. I really don't like being surprised by rodents.

I finally loadd the pictures of my sprouts. I think it's time to transplant. Tell me what you think.

Anita,
I am not sure I got rid of them yet... it remains to be seen! I spoke with a lady last year at the Boston Flower show - she is from the Mass Wildlife and she told me to use several things since there is not know one method to get rid of them.
Disrupt their tunnels and burrows - so I did... I see a hole and I fill in with rock, step on it, put some poison (it's bad but usually I do this where I have no plants)
They have traps that you can bury about 1 foot deep and supposedly they will get in eat poison and die outside the trap

They ate really stablished roses - all the roots... nothing left...lavender, black eyed susans and daisies, and even hostas... all damage was underneath the plant, but I can see on some roses their teeth marks on the canes that are thicker... I was just sooooooo @#$^^&**@(( can't even describe how upset I was... I lost roses I will never be able to replace... so sad...

So I hope to attack again in a few weeks when they will be coming out ... another thing I am doing is if this snow sticks to the ground I am going to my roses and just making sure they are not really buried so I can keep and eye on the ground around it...

Seems to me they come and go at will. We've had tons of them some years, and no problem other years. The one year they were really bad, digging up and/or eating my plants, I put a box of D-Con out. They disappeared fast so it seemed to work. I didn't want to chance poisoning any birds or other critters, so I put a box in an area were they were very active, put an upside down flower pot over it with a stake through the drain hole.

Karen

Lily will usually take care of them if they get near

Karen, that sounds like a great idea. I buried the poison worms in their active run. I did kill a robin the first time I laid the bait. It did slow activity for awhile. I read the voles follow the grubs??? So if you rid your yard if grubs the voles will find another yard...is my understanding. They upended one of my coneflowers last year. Ugh! I also read the allium and castor beans plants keep them away.

Castor Beans terrify me with their poison. But they do make beautiful plants...

I'm not so sure they do anything to moles or voles either. Lots of sources say that's an old wives tale. I love castor beans



Karen

Love that corner Karen... really nice... I am not sure what else I am going to do regarding those horrible creatures...

I just set this up to hold trays I have no room for indoors. 3.5 mil translucent film over garden fence (like rabbit fence).

I wish the film were clear instead of translucent!
I also wish it got morning sun, but my only spot with any morning sun doesn't get sun any other part of the day.

How big is that? Looks huge. Do you have holes in that tarp to let some rain in?

My wintersown jugs are in full shade. I don't want early sprouts and this year has been so warm. (Except for our current intermission- 30° and snow. It has been a warm winter, but a cold front moved in on Friday, spawning all those tornadoes in the area that you're no doubt seeing on the news). The warmth is to return tomorrow and I'll soon move my containers to morning sun as it's getting to be the time of year I generally start to see sprouts.

Karen

>> My wintersown jugs are in full shade.

That seems like the best answer for my "overcooking" anxiety while I'm away at work.

>> How big is that? Looks huge.

No, there's just nothing to give it scale. It's just 10 feet long and about 30" wide. I could set 1020 trays "sideways" and theoretically fit 10 trays in it, but right now I only have about 4 webbing trays the "narrow" way, plus some Safeway or Home depot Primroses I haven;t planted out yet.

>> Do you have holes in that tarp to let some rain in?

No, I even piled up the soil under it and laid cardboard on top of that, to keep the trays out of cold mud. We have a LOT of rain. Watering it every other week is probably enough, even though the pots are small (3").

As I've pointed out before, you really don't get much rain in your area. You really have to get over that midnset. By way of comparison, Cincinnati gets 41" on average but we had 73" last year. That's twice your average. But my milk jugs stay out there with no caps, lots of rain and snow and fresh air which I think helps germination and survival. They're also less susceptible to too much heat.
Interesting:
http://www.todayifoundout.com/...

Karen

The very last sentence in that article gave me a grin, Karen. The picture of the umbrella cats is cute too.

Yes, I should say that we have very frequent light rain. And it does make an emotional impression to have constant clouds October through March ... though it feels closer to 9 motnhs than 6.

And I would call it "frequent" light drizzles in that season, rather than "occasional". It may be selective memeory, but I seem to see my back deck wet more often than dry, in the "rainy season".

I suppose it made a big impression on me, my first year here, when there was measurable rain EVERY day for 40 days days in a row, and no one was very surprised.

And it always impresses me to see thick, luxurient moss on driveways and roofs.

And enough water that it stands in the drainage ditch I dug several times per month "in season" ... of course, the drop in that ditch is slight, and the clay has very little "perk".

Yes, the article is close to what we get here. Lived her all my life, still have issues with the gray days but, when the sun shines that is what we live here for!!! I just want to drop very thing and run out in the sun.

Karen, I thought we got rain but one year we went to Disney World in August. Well every afternoon it rained, in buckets 2-3 inches in about a half hour. WOW!! Then the sun come out and it was dry in no time. Here it is just wet wet wet all the time. The very best time of year is the last 2 weeks in July and first part of Aug. Well that is if you like it hot.

I have a friend collecting jugs for me, so next year I will be ready to winter sow. I love the ideas on this thread. Hope that you will all continue to post especially with the end results!