Seed fair and the effective beginning of the gardening season

Hello all--

We hosted the annual EHCG Seed Fair this past Saturday morning, opening our doors at 9:30 AM for residents and students, and 10:30 AM for faculty/staff/community members.  About 300 plots were accounted for, each plot allocated 15 tickets (or equivalent 15 seed packets), and an estimated 700 people were in attendance throughout the day.  We hosted a gardening workshop as well as several orientations around the garden; the weather is very fair now and I actually had to remove my coat while showing new gardeners around.  Spring is here!

I don't know about you, but I have been noticing tulips and daffodils emerge from the cold dark earth for several weeks around my neighborhood.  I am pleased to report that the bulb flowers are coming up in the gardens as well; the next time you pass the arbor, you might sneak a peak of the dormant life awakening.  Strawberries and garlic are showing their springtime spirit as well.  I promise to add some photos after my stint in the garden this coming Saturday morning.

We are expecting a good deal of rainy days this week, although it appears that the rainfall may be a bit on-and-off throughout the day.  The cold weather plant sale is scheduled for Sunday morning (April 4) at 11 AM to 1 PM.  You can expect early/mid spring staples such as broccoli, kale, and cold-tolerant herbs.

Before planting these transplants, make sure to prepare your beds--there's no sense in transplanting these little guys into hard, cracked clay.  It's nice to give your crops a leg up in life by supplementing your soil with soil amendments.  There is a nice pile of what is loosely referred to as "mulch" between the weed pile and leaf pile at EHCG.  This is mostly decayed/decomposed plant matter which can be added to the topsoil to loosen it as well as to add some nutrients (NPK as well as micronutrients).  This soil amendment is not as nutrient-dense as true compost, and even less so than fertilizer.  You will find, however, that your cool weather crops need less pampering than summer crops such as eggplant and squash; the material in the mulch pile is more than sufficient for now.

One final note about these transplants: depending on the condition of your soil this Sunday (it may be very wet and dense), you may consider waiting a week to relocate the plants into the soil.  The current temperature is generally OK for cool weather crops, although we may dip down around freezing several more times.  I may play it on the safe side and keep my own transplants indoors by a well-lit window for now so that I am not risking my plants or the garden tools (or my back!) to force crops into the mud.

I will start concluding each blog entry with a short list of what I'm personally doing in my plot at the moment to give you a general idea of when and how one gardener progresses through the seasons.  Please consider this a very open-ended guideline, as all gardeners are different and many very experienced gardeners use tricks I won't describe here.

What am I growing now?

• I sowed peas on Friday; I think they will be okay even in the compacted soil.  I will wait until this coming weekend to put in my supports (pictures to come) because the ground will be better thawed by then.
• I also sowed very small trial patches of spinach, lettuce, beets, and carrots.  This was pretty risky of me, but I have many many seeds so I can resow in two weeks or so if need be.
• My tulips, daffodils, crocuses, strawberries, and garlic are waking up after winter's slumber.
• I want to start Johnny Jump-Ups outside ASAP but will wait for the ground to dry a bit.

What else am I doing in the garden?

• Like many gardeners, I put down heavy leaf cover (mulch) at the end of last season to prevent weed growth and protect my perennials.  I am slowly removing the leaf cover as the days warm up, but it is difficult while it is still wet.  I will do this gradually.
• Early weeding.  I saw tiny weeds last weekend, which in a few weeks time could get out of control.  It is always a better use of time to pull out little weeds and cover problem areas with leaf mulch, than to allow the weeds to reach critical mass to deal with them.  
• General clean-up.  I kind of threw my tomato cages etc into ugly piles in the middle of my plot last October.  I want to straighten up so that my plot doesn't look abandoned.

If you have questions or comments, please leave them below and I will be happy to start a conversation here with you.  Happy gardening!