Do you know you can use old milk and water gallon jugs to create mini green houses and start your native perennial seeds outdoors in the winter?

I decided to try this winter sowing method for the first time this year.

I collected seeds in the fall from Purple Cone Flowers, Wood Betony and Wild Bee Balm. I scattered many of the seeds around my new native plant beds in my .4 acre yard in Neenah after the first snows at the beginning of winter. I also saved plenty of seed for starting in trays. The milk jug idea is a new experiment.

I attended the Oshkosh Seed Savers swap a picked up some native seeds from Wild Ones that I had not already collected. I have grey-headed coneflower, fake boneset, and a mix of Roseweed and Rattlesnake Master seeds beginning their germination process in the new little greenhouses I made yesterday.

Learn a bit more about starting seeds in milk jugs

Starting seeds in milk jugs, or “winter sowing,” is a simple, cost-effective method using milk jugs as mini-greenhouses to start seeds outdoors. Simply clean a jug, add drainage holes, cut it in half (leaving a hinge), fill with 3-4 inches of potting soil, plant seeds, seal with tape, remove the cap, and place outside in a sunny spot. The jugs provide a protected environment, allowing for earlier planting and self-watering by rain and snow.

I started saving our distilled water jugs this winter to experiment with making mini greenhouses for my native seed starting. It was easy to do and didn’t cost anything extra that we didn’t already have. I am looking forward seeing what happens with germination in a few weeks.