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Slow Food in the Garden

April

4/5/2018

 
Spring has finally arrived! Vibrantly-hued plants are beginning to bloom all around town, in our yards and gardens. Most areas around the South Sound will be frost-free by mid-April and ready for planting outdoors.

If you've already started your seeds indoors, this month will be busy with transplanting and potting up.  A seedling is big enough to transplant when it has two or three true leaves. The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide suggests transplanting in the afternoon or evening, when the plant's stomata begins to close, minimizing water loss. Handle seedlings gently, lifting by their seed leaves, which will eventually fall off, thus reducing damage to essential true leaves. Once the seedling has been transplanted into a larger pot, gently bring the soil around the roots and water with lukewarm water, avoiding watering the fragile leaves.  

Tasks in the garden this month:
Add bedding to worm bin
Hang mason bee houses
Plant berries and bare-root plants
Set slug traps

Sow outdoors:
Beets
Spinach
Chard
Sorrel
Carrots
Cilantro
Dill
Parsley
Parsnips
Lemon balm
Arugula
Asian greens
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Collards
Cress
Kale
Kohlrabi
Radish
Turnips
Potatoes
Peas, all varieties
Lettuce
Leeks
Chives

Sow indoors to transplant:
Basil
Cucumbers
Melon
Pumpkins
Squash, summer 
Squash, winter

Hardening off
Plants tenderly raised indoors require a bit of adjusting, to transition outside into more extreme temperatures and conditions. Unlike indoor controlled temperatures, our outdoor plants are exposed to winds that can dry leaves, direct sun that can scorch and cool temps that can slow down growth.  Hardening off transplants will give your seedlings a better chance of survival.  Depending on the variety of plant, it can take from a week to a month of conditioning to outdoor exposure. Bring plants outside for gradually lengthening periods of time. Expose plants to filtered sunlight, gradually increasing over time. Taking time to acclimate your seedlings will pay off in the end, with better survival rates and healthier plants.

April is the month of the slug!
Mild winters and wet springs are heaven for the slug community, providing the perfect habitat and food sources for our slimy neighbors. Slugs prefer moist, cool ground cover to hide in and eat. They love hiding in mulch, bricks and rocks.  
Reduce slug populations in your garden by clearing dead and low-hanging leaves around plants.
Hunt for slug holdouts at night and early morning, following slime trails and looking under leaves and inside foliage. Slugs burrow into the top 2inches of soil, so scratch the surface to find any sneaky guys hiding just out of sight. 
Some folks swear by beer traps, other find the copper strip barrier to be most effective. I myself have found the early morning hunts most useful and least invasive. Explore what works for you, and allows you to save your precious veg from decimation. Slugs are very persistent and haven't much else to do all night but eat. Make sure it's not your garden they are dining on.

March

3/1/2018

 
Going against the advice of veteran growers and waiting until Memorial Day to plant anything outside, I planted my potatoes mid-February. Then it snowed, and snowed some more, and the potatoes' vibrant purple shoots shriveled and died. My dad would be shaking his head, without saying a word telling me, "I told you so!"

Sometimes we take the risk and lose a few plants. Sometimes we win and get an early crop. This month, the eager gardeners can get ready for planting by starting seeds indoors and checking the hardiness rating of seeds to determine which varieties can be planted outdoors. 

Hardy plants can tolerate frost and be planted out in early spring.

They include:
Swiss chard
Spinach
Peas, shelling/snap/snow
Corn salad(mâché)
Fava beans
Garbanzo beans
Cilantro
Fennel
Arugula
Onion sets
Some varieties of lettuce
Many annual flowers
(Late March)
Potatoes
Jerusalem artichoke

Half-hardy plants can tolerate some cold, but thrive with nighttime temperatures between 47 and 53 degrees F. Sowing seeds under a cloche gives you a jump on the season, providing protection and regulating temperatures to speed germination and growth.

These include:
Beets
Carrots
Radish
Collards
Chinese cabbage
Dill
Spring broccoli
Kale
Mustard
Endive

Now is the time to get started on sowing seeds indoors for long-season summer veggies. A heat-regulated propagation box with grow lights is ideal, but a bright, warm windowsill is a satisfactory place to start transplants.

Seeds to start indoors include:
Rhubarb
Celeriac
Celery
Lemon balm
Broccoli
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Ground cherry
Hot peppers
Sweet peppers
Tomatillos
Tomatoes
Chives
Leeks
Onions

We hope you have fun planting. Let the gardening season begin!

February

2/1/2018

 
With this year's mild winter, many of the over-wintered veggies left in the garden survived, and are now ready to harvest. The beets, carrots and kale seem sweeter now than their fall counterparts, and are a bright, welcome addition to the heavy meals of winter.
 
February is a good month consider your soil. Did you plant a cover crop? It will be soon time to till it into the soil. No cover crop? No problem! Now is a good time to amend your soil with a generous serving of compost, to replenish the soil's nutrients and ready it for spring planting. 

Older perennials can be divided this month to produce healthier plants. Tips can be found here.  
 
Though our last frost date is months away, local gardeners eager to get their hands in the soil can try their luck and direct-plant the following seeds outdoors (for better odds, cover with cloche):
  • arugula
  • fava beans
  • beets
  • carrots
  • lettuce
  • mustard
  • peas: snap or snow
  • radish
  • spinach

This month, gardeners can also start the following seeds indoors:
  • artichoke
  • broccoli
  • cabbage
  • cauliflower
  • leek
  • kale
  • scallion
  • onion
Have leftover seed packets from previous plantings? This month is a good time to check for seed viability. Here is an easy way to check to see if the seed package you opened three years ago is still viable.

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