A winter sweet pea planting

Re-hydration in action, look what a little water can do

I would not normally even consider sowing sweet peas in the winter.  Monty Don, that great stalwart of British gardening and a man I would gladly marry in exchange for access to his greenhouses, once conducted an experiment on his show Gardeners World to see whether sowing in winter gave you some great advantage.  Apart from slightly earlier flowers, he concluded that it did not.
However, in my case I can see other advantages in winter sowing.  Anyone who read about my efforts last spring will know that on the whole it did not go well.  For such a simple thing to grow, after all sweet peas are often touted as the beginner's flower, I managed to make a right royal mess of the whole sowing process.  I made some fundamental errors that I guess we all have to make to learn, but that I will endeavour not to repeat this year.  By sowing in Winter it will free up germinating space for another batch in spring, thereby giving two bites of the cherry.  Or possibly two opportunities to mess it up.

Seeds in a glass jar post soaking

In an effort to ensure germination across the board I have followed the backs of the packets to a tee, although I remember covering last years with newspaper until they germinated and I have forgotten to do that this year.  Oh well.  The packets said soak the seed overnight in water before planting, so thats what I did.  Only I remembered I needed to do this only after I was already in bed so I actually got back out to soak my seeds, such dedication.
I soaked two seeds of each variety of the eight that I have.  There is limited space in my germination area so I didn't get too carried away.  The packet said use warm water, I guess that gets the process started, so I placed the jar by a radiator to try and keep the water warmish all night.  A nice little layer of paper over the top to stop sneaky midnight drinks by the cat.  I was surprised how fat the seeds actually got over night.  They went in looking like very dry black peppercorns and came out in the morning about a third bigger and beautifully smooth, like they had enjoyed a round of botox overnight.
Being devoid of a greenhouse my germination spot of choice is the handy windowsill in the internal garage.  Space, as I said, is limited by it being a small window and also the current home of my narcissus and hyacinths.

I always find an empty washing up bowl great for putting holey damp pots in so your brother's stuff doesn't get ruined when you rest all your seedlings on it

Im hoping that they will germinate fine in there as it is an internal garage so it never gets too cold so they won't freeze, but it also isn't heated giving me long straggly seedlings.