Get Prepping and Plant Peas!

Well for those that read my article last month here is a continuation of that inspiration. Hopefully you’ve already started thinking about what you want to grow in your garden this year. So now I’m telling you it’s go time.
Time to direct sow peas in the ground. If your ground is frozen solid or buried in snow your just going to have to wait. Just keep an eye on it and the next time it warms up and dries a bit, get it prepped. If your ground is nice and crumbly and you are beginning to see other plants sprout up, chances are you can prepare your beds and start to sow some cold tolerant plants. When I’m talking prepped I mean using a digging fork to loosen the soil, not necessarily turning it but fluffing it. It is better to maintain the soil structure than to churn it up. I have several garden beds that don’t have any frames around them, I’m just working with the earth and shaping it how I like it. I will insert the digging fork as deep as I can go and give it a wiggle to loosen the soil, repeating over the entire space desired. Then I’ll use a garden rake to smooth out the edges and pull them into the bed to make it taller. When you use raised beds of any sort they are able to warm up quicker in the spring allowing our plants to do better when it’s cold out. Raised beds also have increased drainage that can help reduce pathogen outbreaks. I’ll then top dress the whole thing with compost. Now it’s ready for direct sowing. I’ll also start prepping other beds that will take greens transplants in another month or so. Broadcasting seeds is another way to get stuff growing as well. Granted they won’t sprout up in neat little lines but it’s not labor intensive (bonus) and with a little practice you can get a good spacing of seeds throughout the bed. The bonus of starting things outside now is that you will get rainfall to do your watering for you. It rarely dries up during these remaining winter months and early spring. Mustards, arugula, mache, and lettuces are pretty hardy when it gets cold. I have all of those in the ground and covered with garden cloth. Two weeks ago they were buried in some of that snow we call sierra cement. So as the snow melted off I was surprised to see delicious micro greens when I peaked under the cloth. They are patiently waiting for warmer weather to put on some green growth enough for me to begin harvesting. You’d be surprised at how things can still grow when it seems to be so cold out.

Start thinking about seeds!

If you’re a gardener, it’s once again time to start thinking about what types of crops you want to grow this year. Pull out the garden porn (seed catalogs) and start drooling over all the scrumptious choices. Do you want more than one variety of tomato? Perhaps a big slicing tomato, a medium sized one good for salads and cherry tomatoes for popping in your mouth. There are plenty to choose from. Are there any other fruits or veggies you would like to learn how to grow? Now is the time to start gathering seeds to grow in the coming months and year. Now where does one get good seed? There are some good sources. And is all seed the same? Not really. Think of it this way, all seeds have stories behind them. Some stories better than others, so what story do you want to be a part of? The story of the seed that came from someone’s grandparents that got them from their grandparents? Or do you like the story about the multinational company trying to corner the market with a hybrid variety developed at a University. I prefer the former myself and for good reason. Truth is that this story of seeds and humans began around 12,000 years ago and has undergone a co-evolution between the two. Cultures evolved with diets based on the seeds they had relationships with. Today we are able to mix and match all sorts of fruits and veggies to our own likings. Borrowing food traditions from others and fusing them into our own creations. That is part of the reason that growing our own foods can be so exciting. You can experiment with all sorts of dishes without denting your pocketbook so much. You just have to find the time and space to get growing.
So when I look at my farm/garden porn. I’m only looking at those seed catalogs that I trust and know. I’m choosing to purchase my seeds from companies I know aren’t owned by Monsanto or some other big corporation. Which is becoming increasingly difficult. A company that has integrity to pass down quality seed produced with production practices that I agree with is one I want to support. Organically produced seeds are preferred because they will be more acclimated to organic fertilizers and possibly poor soils. Once I have found a good seed source I am inspired to localize that species and or variety to my own locale by gathering seeds from the plants I grow and growing them out the following season. I have been saving seed for several years now and have certain varieties of squash, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, etc.. The varieties I have saved have worked well on my site and continue to work well. The more generations that seeds are saved from at a particular site or climate the more adapted to the site they become. So after several years of growing Stupice tomatoes on site and saving seed from generation to generation I am developing a Stupice tomatoe that will do better than any other Stupice tomato seed I can purchase.
So why start thinking about seeds now? First off its better to be ahead of yourself than behind. And second because if you want to start your garden from seed many of the crops will need to be started in the next few months to get a good quality harvest. It takes awhile for seed starts to get big enough for transplanting out into the garden. Transplanting robust starts early in the season (weather permitting) can bring you great yields for the growing seasons. You can start your seeds in a sunny windowsill or for those of us lucky enough to have greenhouses we can do it there. If you don’t have a greenhouse or space on a sunny window you can construct simple cold frames that will allow you to start earlier but not quite as early as a greenhouse or a sunny window. It also depends on what you are trying to grow and when. Greens season is coming up and is already here depending on what elevation you live at. Warm season crops definitely need more heat to sprout so simple cold frames might not work for them as early as you’d like. If you don’t have the space to start your own seeds then you will have to rely on some of the local nurseries to get you going on your garden this year. Only purchase the healthiest looking plants if you can’t start your own and are left with no other options.
Any way you choose to get plants to your garden its time to start thinking about what you want where. What will you need to help you grow your garden great this year?