Why Smart Gardeners Plant These 12 Crops in Winter.

What if I told you that next year's growing season actually starts right now in the dead of winter? You might be saying, Kev, you live in San Diego, bro. Easy for you to say. Well, the truth is, this method actually works better in colder climates and specifically for some of the most popular spring crops. But first, let's go over exactly why this method works, and then we'll show you how to execute it for some classic spring crops and a couple flowers using a low-cost technique. If we think about how seeds grow in nature, they will not germinate unless the conditions are right. And one of the most important conditions is temperature. So if you look at something like lettuce, it won't germinate past 85 degrees, but it also will probably rot in that heat. But at the same time, if it gets below 35 degrees, lettuce will also not germinate, but that's because it is going dormant. And that dormancy is exactly what we are going to be taking advantage of here because we want these seeds to actually lay dormant and wait through the winter until we get to spring. And when those seeds come up, they're going to come up earlier than any seeds you started in yourselves. It'll probably make you a little bit frustrated, but then you'll see how vigorously they grow, how hardy they are, and you'll be so happy you use this technique. Before we get into the meat and potatoes of how to execute this technique and which crops it works for, the timing is very important for this because as Jacques mentioned, the temp range is what you have to clear. You need it to be below 35 degrees for a consistent amount of time. That means in colder climates, you could get this technique started anywhere from November through about February for the lower zones out there, like a three, a four, a five. If you're talking those middle zones, six to eight, right now in December is probably a good time. In warmer climates like myself here in San Diego, like I said, this technique actually might not work as well. So this is one for those of you with colder climates, you really want those temps to be stably low, as in below 35 degrees, for over a week. Why? Because if you do this and then the temps warm up, you'll accidentally germinate the seed, which is not what you want. You want this sitting dormant until spring. So about half of these spring crops we're going to recommend work well for this very first and what I'll call the core method of winter sowing. And all you need to do it is some kind of milk jug or plastic jug of some sort, some masking tape and some soil. Bonus points if you want to use a six cell seed starting tray, but I'll touch on that a little bit later. Now, which methods work perfect for the winter sowing method that I'm showing, as opposed to the next method that Jacques is going to show? It's really mostly your spring classics. I'm talking things like kale, Dazzling Blue, great variety. Lettuce, Marvel of Four Seasons, another great variety and very timely with the name. Then you've got spinach. A lot of people say you can't transplant spinach. It works fine. You can definitely do it. Arugula, another classic. And then of course you have your red acre cabbage. I think cabbage is a great one specifically because it does take longer than your leafy greens that I just mentioned. And you'll get a big juicy head of cabbage at least a few weeks earlier. Now, the one caveat I will say is you don't want to put your tomatoes, your peppers, your eggplants in this type of setup. Because frankly, those are really great started in an indoor seed system, nurtured, loved, and then transplanted out when you're absolutely sure that the season's ready. So let's get into the winter sowing method. You'll want to take your jug and you'll want to cut it about a third of the way up, almost all the way around. So here's my jug and I can easily open it up with that hinge point on the back. Next thing you want to do is add in your soil. Any sort of potting mix works. You don't have to be too fancy here. You don't need a perfect seed starting mix. And I'll show you why in a second. So we're just going to use some of this Fox Farm potting soil and I'm going to fill it in, but I'm crucially not going to soak it wet with water. So for this example, put on your imagination cap and pretend like it's truly freezing temperatures out here. Because you do not want to be doing this technique on a sunny, beautiful day like this. You want to make sure, like I said, that those temps are at or under 35 Fahrenheit consistently. Otherwise you're just starting the seed right now. You need it to stay dormant. So I'm going to take my red acre cabbage seed. And in this case, because I'm setting up one jug and cabbage is a pretty big plant, I'm just going to put about three seeds right in the middle, lightly tamp them. And that's it. I'm not going to water it in. I'm not going to do anything that would trigger that germination process. I'm going to flip this top up, put the rest of the seeds back and come around with my masking tape and tape it shut. And then of course, crucially, remove that lid. What's nice is this little tape will of course hold the system shut, but it's also great to throw a little label on there, make note of the variety and when you planted it. But the other thing I'm going to say, I'm going to take the tape back off. There's a couple of ways to maximize this technique. What you could do is grab all those empty milk jugs that you've got laying around the house and set up a huge row of these. That's what a lot of people do for this technique. It works really well, keeps your seeds nice and organized. But what some people will do, so let's say they want a lot of cabbage or a lot of lettuce or a lot of arugula, they'll sort of surface scatter this and they'll let that all come up. So when they open this up in spring, they see a lot of sprouts and then they'll do something called pricking out where they kind of come in with very delicate hands or maybe a tweezer and individually transplant. It's a little more labor intensive, but you can definitely do it. Another method that we've been experimenting with that we think works really well is fill up one of our six cell trays, just like this, put this in and then scatter seeds into each of the six cells and then cover it up. And then you don't have to do as much pricking out, which I think makes a lot of sense. So we have the basic winter sowing technique set up, whether you're using a tray, scattering seeds or just planting individuals. There are some tips on where to put this in the garden, how to keep track of it over the season. Then of course, when to transplant it. But before we get to those, Jacques has to show you the technique that works for the crops that aren't these leafy greens, but you can still get a headstart on in spring. The winter sowing technique is excellent. It works for a wide range of crops, but there are some things out there that really just don't want to be transplanted, but you could still sow them in the winter. It's just a little thing called direct sowing. So what are some of those examples? Well, the first one is going to be beets. Beets can be transplanted, but they are best directly sown in ground. And we'll go over the technique on how to do the proper winter direct sowing in a moment. But I also want to cover parsnips is another fantastic one, carrots, echinacea. These kinds of flowers are ones that really need cold stratification, which means that they need cold weather. And I much rather put them in exact spot that I want them in the garden, which is why I prefer direct sowing flowers. And we also have the delphiniums, another one that needs cold weather or else it's never coming up. And then a couple of classics like parsley and dill. These are all cold hardy plants that can be started earlier. So how do you ensure that they survive the winter? So when you are doing direct sowing in the garden, a couple of things to be aware of. First of all, raised beds, totally fine. In fact, they'll warm up a little bit earlier in that spring season. So they might even work a little bit better. Now, the one I'm going to be putting in here today is the parsnip. And remember, it's the exact same goal here. We want to make sure that the ground is cold, but not frozen. We want it to be workable. What workable means is that you could grab the soil. It's not frozen solid. At that point, you're still safe to do your overwinter direct sowing. So all we need to do is clear a little bit of space. We're going to take our seed, in this case parsnips, which have a very long germination period. They're actually one of the more annoying plants to grow in the garden. Could be up to three weeks. This is a perfect candidate for this method. And all we're going to do is sow them just like we would in our regular garden at the right time of year. But instead, when we bury them in, we're going to make sure they're properly buried with soil entirely buried. We don't want them on the surface. And there's one more step that we want to do just to ensure they'll survive. And of course, I'm talking about mulch, a wonderful tool in the garden. Everyone should have it no matter what, but especially with this technique, because by putting this mulch, which by the way, is our beautiful organic USA grown straw. What we're doing here is we're creating a nice little buffered area. So even if there is say a fall spring, it's a little bit warm. The parsnip comes up early. It's still going to be protected by that straw, which will buy it another couple of extra weeks. So direct sowing, pretty good for a lot of these varieties that don't like their roots disturbed or things they want in the exact spot. But what about that winter sown jug? Where is it going to go in your garden? We're back with our winter sown jug. And if you are going in on this method this season, I encourage you to make a lot of these jugs. I've seen people with 10, 20, 30 of these jugs. It actually helps kind of buffer any sort of temperature fluctuation. If you group them all together, when you place them out in the yard for the winter season. And where do you place it? You don't want to put it out in the middle of the yard, where it's going to get blasted by snow, wind, sleet, hail, potentially get damaged. But you don't want to put it like in my greenhouse behind me, because that would actually germinate the seed in the middle of the winter. We want this to come up in that natural spring season, just a little earlier and with kind of an automatic hardening off period. So what I've done is I've placed it right about here, a little protected from some of those winds that might come through, but otherwise I'm not doing anything. The lid is off. I'm going to let some water naturally fall in. Perhaps we get a little bit of rain, we get some dew collection. And then in the late winter and early spring, as I do want to see if it's germinating, I can peel this tape back and just check on it. And if I'm not seeing it be wet enough, I might sprinkle a little bit of water in at that point to kickstart the germination process. But I can't tell you how effective this method is for number one, making gardening easier for you. You don't have to think as much because you do the work now when frankly, there's not a lot to do in winter when it comes to gardening. So you can set these up and then in spring, you're going to thank yourself. You'll say, thank you winter Kevin for doing my work for me. And it's just a really great feeling as you go into that next season. So winter sowing, direct sowing for these specific crops works really well. If you want to see some of our newest crops for 2026 at our seed company, Botanical Interest, we have a full guide on those new releases in this video right here, which of course you can order online or directly from the 5,000 stores around the country that carry Botanical Interest. And until next year, good luck in the garden and keep on growing.