It feels like I’ve been working on getting the fall garden ready for winter for months. With shipping delays and a very late frost this year, it’s hard to believe that I’m just now finishing all the tasks related to the hardy annual flowers and spring flowering bulbs.
Among the first flowers to go into a new bed were the biennial flowers that I’m growing this season. Above is a flower bed filled with Siberian wallflowers, sweet william dianthus, and bells of Ireland. This bed doesn’t get as much sunlight as I would like during the winter, but I’m hoping that it will be enough for the plants to grow well. 
Many of the hardy annual flowers are tucked into tiny spaces all over the yard. As always, I was very short on space. For this reason, you can see that I’ve squeezed the pansy planting into this tiny space where the hoophouse walkway used to be. 
All of the anemones have officially been put into their own garden space, too. These aren’t in the big hoophouse this year, rather, in a smaller low tunnel. I’m really eager to see these plants continue to grow, as I had an excellent sprouting rate this year. Every single corm grew out of 250 – amazing!
While some of the ranunculus are still very small, the plants in the photo above had an excellent head start because they were planted way back at the beginning of October. 
Now that nearly everything is planted, I’ll soon be able to cover the hoophouse and take a short break before the coldest of winter weather arrives.
Hey there,
Love what you do!
I was wondering, did you start the winter hardy flower seeds in the Fall in cell packs, jugs or did you directly plant the seeds in the ground? I’m in WNC and zone 6b also.
I have my jugs, seeds and supplies to winter sow, but not sure of the best month to start planting the cold hardy annual seeds.
Thanks, Lisa
We’re having our first winter in our new house, so I’m trying to be patient and see what pops up in the spring. The people who lived here before us had a different flower style than we do, so I know I will need to make some changes. I need to catch up on your posts about winter sowing!