How to Sow Seeds Outdoors in the Winter
February is slowly coming to an end and we have snowfall predicted for tomorrow, so yesterday felt like the right time to sow some cold-hardy seeds outdoors.
Sowing seeds with our planting grid makes it easier for children to help and know how much space to leave between seeds for each type of crop.
It’s true that some seeds will die with a frost, but some cold-hardy ones will tolerate cold temperatures of about 20F and that’s our low average for this time of the year in our Zone 7B Wrightwood.
Why would you sow seeds outdoors in the winter?
The first and most honest answer is because we’re itching to be outside in the garden and spring couldn’t come any sooner. But really, even though many plants benefit from being sowed indoors, some don’t do well with this method and for others, it would be impractical.
Think roots, for example. Each seed will produce a single carrot, beet, radish, etc. It would take an enormous amount of space to sow each of these guys indoors in trays. And then to transplant all those babies outside! So knowing how cold-hardy these roots are, it makes more sense to sow them outdoors, let the snow soak them, and get them ready to sprout as soon as the weather allows.
The same goes for spinach. When we plant this crop we spread seeds fairly close together and let it become a little green forest that we harvest heavily for soups and juices. Again, it makes more sense to sow seeds outdoors and let them grow slowly in the cold climate of late winter and early spring.
What seeds can you sow outdoors in February?
We mentioned some of our favorites already, but here’s a list to get your ideas flowing:
Carrots: We spread seeds close together in a square foot of a raised bed and thin later if necessary. We find that with small snack carrots you don’t have to thin much. When you remove a carrot, the ones around it get the space to grow, and so you end up having a longer harvest.
Radishes and Beets: We sow a seed every 4 inches. In square foot gardening, we sow 16 seeds per square foot using our planting grid.
Chard: This is a beautiful crop, especially if you grow the Bright Lights variety with its beautiful colorful stems. Although this is a cold-hardy crop, it will do well in the summer as well, so give it space to grow throughout the full season.
Snap Peas: we grow these guys along the northern border of our raised beds and let them vine through the fence. Peas are nitrogen fixers so planting in the late winter will help fix nitrogen into the soil that crops can use throughout the season.
Lettuce: Salad greens, in general, tend to be cold hardy. They might not grow much before the spring, but they’ll be ready and used to your microclimate when the time is right. Since salad greens don’t tolerate warm summers very well, starting them earlier gives you a head start for spring salads –– you’ll enjoy more greens before the heat makes them bolt and their flavor changes to bitter.
Spinach: This green is so cold-hardy that I often recommend starting it in fall and letting it go dormant during winter. You’ll be able to harvest spinach in the fall and spring and marvel at their strength all throughout winter. It’s truly amazing to uncover your spinach under a blanket of snow and see it remain green and strong. Just remember to cover it back up, snow is actually keeping your spinach cozy on cold winter days.
Yesterday we sowed seeds for snap peas, spinach, carrots, beets and radishes in our raised beds.
How to sow seeds outdoors in the winter
You can sow these seeds in pots, raised beds, and on the ground. We sow most of our veggies in raised beds that have been protected from gophers with hardware cloth underneath and from our free-range chickens and squirrels with a small fence above. We gave up on protecting our crops from raccoons because they’re too clever for us, but thankfully they’ve allowed us to grow food so far.
If you didn’t amend your beds with compost in the fall, you’ll want to do that before sowing your seeds. For used pots, you’ll want to remove about half of the soil from last year and replace it with compost. For raised beds, you’ll add a layer of compost over your current soil without tilling or mixing anything. You want to allow the universe of life under your soil to remain unaffected, only adding new organic matter on top.
Follow the instructions on each seed packet and sow the seeds at the right depth. Some seeds need light to germinate or are too small to find their way up through soil so the seed packet will tell you if they should be covered or not.
If you can, cover the area with a thin layer of mulch. It will protect your seeds from drying out and from high winds and hungry birds. Seedless straw is a great option because it’s almost weightless and lets air and light in. You can find seedless straw mulch at some nurseries and Tractor Supply-type stores.
Water thoroughly and softly so small seeds don’t get washed away.
We like using the square foot method for planting because it allows us to keep the beds somewhat organized and to fit as much food as possible without overcrowding the space. We tie UV-resistant string to create square foot sections on each bed and then we use our square foot planting grid to sow each seed at regular intervals.
Planting seeds outdoors in late winter can be a great activity to do alone or with children while you wait for spring to arrive. If you get snow where you live, the seeds will be moist under a blanket of snow and ready to sprout when the time is right. As the season progresses they’ll slowly build roots and prepare for a strong growing season once the weather warms up a bit more.
