It is February and in northern New Jersey, our gardens slumber underneath snow and ice. But this is the time to get an early start on our flowers and vegetables! Follow along with us as we prepare our 2025 gardens!
Organization
Time to dig up (sorry!) all my gardening equipment and supplies. From my garden shed, I gathered my small pots and some “winter sown” bottles that I saved from last year. I also took my saved seed packets from the refrigerator. I created a small work area using some lawn furniture stored in the basement and cleaned my grow light shelving to prepare for my seedlings. Now that all my materials are in one place, I am ready to sow seeds.
Lets Start Some Herbs and Flowers!
It’s a little early (February 11) to start vegetables indoors, but it’s a good time to replenish my fresh dill and basil. I froze my basil and dill from last year, and my supply is getting short.
A good start to an herb garden is to buy an herb variety kit.
Winter Sowing – start your plants outside in NJ
I started mammoth sunflower seeds outside in bottles. The bottles have small holes poked in them. They are from the winter sowing method. I started them early outside, in this case outside in the snow and cold of winter.
Winter sowing, or overwintering outdoors, starts the season early and allows the seeds to germinate as soon as the weather improves.
Winter sowing involves planting seeds in containers and leaving them outdoors to germinate as the temperatures increase over the winter. This process encourages the seeds to germinate naturally, which leads to stronger, healthier, more resilient plants. The plants then adapt to the local climate throughout the winter, as well as to any fluctuations in temperature, resulting in hardy plants and flowers. This method is also very simple to execute, which is also a big plus for your garden. You can just set your containers outdoors to do their thing and the nature will take care of the rest.