If you have an excess of plant or flower seeds, considering starting them this winter

Last week, I cleaned what used to be my office but had become a huge closet. It was filled with all manner of things, so it was a huge effort to slog through everything, making each item beg for its life — a trick my good friend Wayne taught me.

One thing became evident at the very start of the project: I am incapable of discarding seed packets. I almost never plant all the contents of a seed packet, so I keep them. As I cleared the office, I started a pile and then needed to fill a shoe box and finally had to resort to bringing in a grocery bag to hold my seed collection. That is a lot of seeds. Now what?

I decided that come spring, I would toss the flower seeds in my collection onto the new meadow portions of our lawn and see what happens. But then I got to thinking. Why not plant directly on the snow? Wouldn’t that actually give me much more control over where the seeds go as I can see where they are sprinkled? Of course, the snow’s surface has to be fresh and fluffy so the seeds will sink a bit instead of being blown away, which they would if I planted on crusty snow.

Actually, there are some flowers may actually benefit from the stratification — cold treatment — in snow before germinating in the spring. These include lupines, poppies, sweet alyssums, larkspurs, columbines and almost anything found in a wildflower mix.

I can even toss seeds into the vegetable garden, as I now plant in containers and their shapes are visible. Lettuce, spinach, mâche, peas, arugula, chives, celery and parsley are vegetables that benefit from being planted in the winter when it is cold. Or, I can wait for one of the thaws that leaves bare soil and mulch and plant vegetable seeds then.

You don’t need meadows to start seeds outdoors in the winter, either. Just take flats or other seed-starting containers outside after seeds are planted in them. These go into a “winter” nursery, someplace where they will be covered with snow and where they won’t be walked on.

Once spring comes around, these outdoor seeds will germinate and, after the soil thaws, they can be transplanted just like your hardened-off, indoor-grown seedlings, only these won’t need hardening-off. They will be vigorous growers and early bloomers.

Then, of course, there is my lighting system. There is absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t start a few seeds from my left over packages and coax them into blooms for late winter. I know I won’t have problems getting a few marigolds or cosmos to flower. Delphiniums, on the other hand, will be a bit more challenging, particularly because they do like some time out in the cold. If I had the patience, I suppose I could put them outside for a month or two in containers, retrieve them, and put them under my lights for early spring flowers.

I know I am not the only person who has packets of seeds from previous years. It is a good time to take a look at your collection. Your own lawn meadow may be calling for a bit of winter sowing or, you can use those lights I keep talking about.

Jeff’s Alaska Garden Calendar

Alaska Botanical Garden: If you have not joined, do so today. You owe it to yourself and your fellow gardeners. And, consider gifting memberships! There is so much going on. See the full schedule of events, from ice sculptures to solstice celebrations and so much more. Do check it out.

Stored plants: Do you know how your fuchsia is doing? Check that crawl space and give just a bit of water to those pots, make sure tubers are not molding, and clean up the dried leaves that were on things before you put them into storage.