Today I wanted to post quick about a few new gardening methods I've discovered and am thinking about trying out this year.
The first is called Winter Sowing. I discovered information on this method here: http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2012/11/winter-sowing-101-6/
This method uses milk jugs or any other clear plastic jug, filling it with dirt, planting seeds, and leaving them outside overwinter. The seeds sprout in the spring when it's warm enough, sooner because they are all in mini "greenhouses". The info in the website is very easy to read and understand. The writer lives in New York, where they get very cold winters, so I'm assuming this method would be very successful here in the pacific northwest where our winters are very mild. I currently have three jugs of sweet peas outside, we'll see how they do! I'm hoping to add more if I can to help get a head start on my plants.
The second one is called straw bale gardening. There is a youtube video about it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmDhVhqSXNw
In this method he uses straw bales as a border around his garden bed, and then is also planting tomatoes right in the bale! Would be interesting to try, although I was reading in some of the comments that slugs liked to hide in the bales. May be beneficial for plants that like a lot of heat.
