The Seed Coffin

The temperature reached 50+ degrees today which meant yours truly was outside from dawn until dusk. And by "dawn," I mean 11:00 when my eyes opened. Yours truly is truly not a morning person, and since I'm comfortable with who I am, I may just change to rules to state that "dawn" begins at noon. Yes, yes, I like that idea!

Our average temp here in my neck of the woods is 34 degrees, with a low of 26. We aren't usually able to enjoy "warm" days in January in Sconnie. Which meant I was SO glad I got up early to work on my winter sowing project; the seed coffin. I know, it sounds macabre, but it's not. And no, macabre is not pronounced mackabree as I thought until I was nearly not a teenager anymore...🤪🤪🤪

Anyway, winter seed sowing involves planting (usually native) seeds outside so they experience conditions similar to what they would have experienced if they had fallen off their mother plant in their natural environment, and not been captured by me and held hostage in tiny jars in my garden shed since November. Most native seeds need a period of cold temperatures and a period of cold wet stratification when the snow melts in the spring. Under ideal (or almost ideal) conditions, seeds will sprout in the spring when temperatures warm up, typically between 50 and 80 degrees, depending on the seed being planted.

There are a few seeds that don't require stratification (underachievers) but the majority of native seeds do. My process involves creating a "seed coffin" and I'll quickly describe the process below. I've tried many varieties, but this method seems to work best and since I also am underachiever, I like things easy.

Step one: Gather supplies. Oh, I suppose I should describe what those supplies would be: framework (I used cedar 4x4 posts), soil (organic seed starting mix), trays, pots, seeds, a notebook and clipboard, a pen, and a mininum of two cats (no, not optional.)

You're doing it wrong, Mom!

Step one: Lay out the posts in two straight lines about the width of a seed tray. (Pro tip, use one of the trays to determine "about the width of a tray.")

Step two: Place the trays within the parameters of the posts and then put the pots into the trays.

Place your trays within the framework and put your pots in the trays.

Step three: Fill the pots with compost or seed starting mix or soil from your yard. Native plants like native soil. They don't need anything fancy.

Step four: Draw out a diagram showing how many trays you have. Don't worry yet about the pots, that part comes later.

Step five: Start planting! One or two seeds in each pot. Sprinkle over the planted pots with a light layer of soil. Many native plants need light to germinate so you don't want to cover them too heavily.

Once you are done planting (don't rush! I started my seed coffin three weeks ago and will hopefully finish winter sowing tomorrow.)

Step six: On your diagram, make note of how many of what seeds you planted where. I know that was confusing so here is a picture that should simplify it for you.

Clear as mud, right?

I just realized I forgot to mention two important supplies for this process. A snow shovel and snow. I could go back and add them to the supply list, but since I'm in full underachiever mode, I'm just going to let it slide and hope you read the entire blog. 😝😝😝😝

Step next number bigger than the last one:

Cover the entire area that has been planted with three to four inches of snow. Omit this step if you have snow in your forecast and let Mother Nature do the work. But she has also been an underachiever this year and we are about 20" behind in snowfall for the season. But that is a blog for another time.

By covering the coffin with snow I'm allowing for at least one cold wet stratification cycle to encourage germination in the spring. Granted, we have snow in the forecast, but nothing is guaranteed in this new climate climate.

As I was covering the coffin with snow, the local utility guys drove by, slowly, and staring at me fearfully. And then they drove by again, even more slowly. I fully anticipated a squad pulling into our driveway a few minutes later, but no.

The Seed Coffin. Definitely got the attention of the utility guys driving by. Fortunately they didn't call the cops! Wait, we ARE the cops! 👮‍♀️👮‍♂️

Final "drawing" of 2nd winter sowing episode. Means nothing to anyone but me. And thank goodness I took a picture because I lost the original chart!

Just a brief rundown of what I planted since my charts are in the language of Prairie Restorations, Inc and only a few selects persons can interpret:

Meadow Blazing Star (Liatris ligulistylis)

Purple Praire Clover (Dalea purpurea)

Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum trilobum)

Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)

Hairy Grama (giggle...) (Boutela hirsuta)

New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus)

Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa)

Sod flat (mixture of a bunch of different seeds. Once they germinate the whole thingamig gets planted in the ground. It's my Frankenstein seed experiment.)

Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) Five years in the biz and I still can't say that!

Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepsis)

Showy Penstemon (Penstemon grandiflorus)

Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea)

The seed coffin before covering it with snow. The right side that's already covered with snow was from my first seeding a couple of weeks ago. On the left side I've started covering with snow to mimic cold wet stratifications when the snow melts in the spring.

Whew!! And since spring is between 8 and 38 weeks away, we hopefully won't need to wait long to see if this is successful. 👩‍🌾👩‍🌾

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I'll keep you posted!

Any questions, feel free to message me on Facebook on my "Something to Mulch Over" page! Or email me at somethingtomulchover@gmail.com.

Happy Planting!