March's Garden (2019)

The winter garden is almost gone and it's time to begin planting for spring.

A few of the bolting plants will be allowed to make seeds but most have been eaten.  During the winter, I thought I had enough vegetables to last until the spring garden was in, but we are running out.  The garden must get bigger - quickly!  This is my bag of magic seeds.  Whenever anything bolts and I don't know what it is, I put them in this sandwich bag.  Seeds have been added and subtracted from this bag for about five years.

Bill plowed the very back area of the garden.  This section is hardly used because there are tall trees hanging over the fence. When they leaf out, it will be too dry and shady for most vegetables.  It will be fine for lettuce, cabbages, radishes, collards, mustard greens, and Chinese vegetables.  The magic seeds were thrown into the soil in hopes of a quick harvest; microgreens will be picked first, next a walking aisle will be harvested, then it will be thinned for salads. Who knows what will grow?  It will be a surprise. 

The naughty horse has been pushing against the garden fence again and has eaten all the grass she can reach.  Obviously, she didn't like garlic and avoided the plants left from last year's garden.   

Most of my gardening this month has been done in my laundry room.  

The window is facing north; there isn't enough light to grow anything but it's a good place to root plants. The lemongrass and sweet potatoes are sitting in cups of water in the window. The saved lemongrass cutting from last year's garden was forgotten and not watered - I had to buy new ones from the grocery store.  They are beginning to root.

This year I wanted to try something new so I bought five different kinds of sweet potatoes at grocery stores.  

I baked all of them for a taste test.  The biggest loser was Purple Stokes - nobody was impressed.

Jewel was the one everyone agreed was the sweetest.  Second place went to the Japanese Yam, which was white inside.  All agreed it tasted similar to a mildly sweet, mashed white potato.  Both winners are sitting in a cup of water in the window.  When they sprout vines, it will be time to move them to the bright sunshine on the front porch.

Most of my plants are started indoors.  These are 3-ounce plastic cups with a drainage hole drilled in the bottom.  I add Miracle Grow potting mix, a few seeds then a plastic spoon marked with the name.  The cups and spoons are reused.  

When a new package of seeds arrive in the mail, the necessary information is removed and placed with the seeds in a small plastic bag.  The small bags are sorted and placed into a larger bag.  I prefer a huge variety of fresh vegetables but not many of one thing unless it is to be canned for winter. The seeds are started according to which grows the slowest.  As I finish each category of seeds, the bag is transferred to the other basket to avoid confusion. This way is quick and easy.  Since I only use a few seeds of each variety, one package of seeds will last me years.  When I order seeds, it's always something new and exciting.  Almost everything purchased is an heirloom so I am able to save my favorites.  

The cups are placed on a heating pad to start germination.  It isn't an expensive growing mat, but a regular, cheap heating pad with the fabric cover removed.  I check the temperature using my canning thermometer. 

As soon as they sprout, the cups are moved to the front porch for sunshine.  I keep cold-sensitive plants like tomatoes and bell peppers together.  When the weather report says it is going to be cold (last night it dropped down to the lower 30's), that box is brought in for the night.  Since the cups have drainage holes, it's easy to fill the cardboard boxes (covered with plastic trash bags) with water from the outside faucet.  After all the plants are transplanted into the garden, the boxes are trashed.

Lessons learned from this past winter's garden:

*This winter was milder and wetter than years past, but anything outside the hoop house (except for fava beans, carrots, parsnips, and Walking Onions) still perished.

*Rotating crops is a necessity.  This year I didn't have any disease problems at all.

*I forgot to fertilize but since everything was a light feeder, they did fine.

*Planting lettuce and spinach between larger plants didn't work as well as expected.  It made weeding difficult - I hate to weed.  Mulching with leaves works better.  

*Winter gardening is catching on with people and seed catalogs are beginning to offer more varieties of cold hardy vegetable seeds.  I bought what I wanted before they sold out.

*Winter gardening is absolutely worth the effort.  When fresh vegetables are in short supply, it's a blessing to be able to walk out the backdoor and harvest all the exotic vegetables we want.  As I learn new recipes, we are eating more and more from the garden.  The next winter garden must be larger.  

"Oh, look at the pitiful plants left in Mom's pathetic garden.  It's so sad.  Hopefully, she won't post them on the internet and embarrass me."  Scooter opined.

If you are interested in growing your own winter garden, these links will help:
Winter Garden, Sunlight Hours
November's Garden (2019)
Additional Links:
Next Month's April Garden (2019)
Last Month's February Garden (2019)
Last Year's March Garden (2018)
March's Garden (2017)
Lemongrass Harvest