March Garden Happenings

MARCH 3

In individual peet pots:
Basil x2 - slow to germinate, but did well. Winter sown ones were even better.
Broccoli x3 - germinated in 1-2 days, already leggy after 3-4 days. None of them hardened off well. Ended up direct sowing. Will not start indoors again.
Cabbage x2 - Similar to broccoli. Much easier to direct or winter sow.
Celeriac x5 - slow germinating and growing. Looks good now, but not sure if I want to invest in all the watering and fertilizer... sounds like a high maintenance plant.
Celery x2 - same as celeriac
Pepper, Miniature Yellow Bell x5 - Approx 2 weeks to germinate. Best looking plant started indoors. Could maybe even start sooner. Did not become leggy at all.
Tomatillo x5 - Started too soon, 1.5-2ft tall by time able to transplant outside, very lanky.
Tomato, Oregon Spring x5 - same as tomatillo.
Tomato, Taxi x5 - Same as tomatillo
Sage x2 - did not show up till 3/20! Still tiny, but healthy.

***Next time will use 3" and 4" plastic pots... peet seemed to stunt the growth of many seedlings***

Onions, purplette - started in 6" pot. Germinated well, but then week and unable to harden off - onions best direct sown.

Outside this week I cut an edge to the garden (it had no defined edge and lawn was creeping in), weeded, tilled, and ammended soil.


MARCH 8
Peas, sugar sprint snap - direct sowed outside with small amount sterile seed mix, sprouted 13 days later

MARCH 9
Sunflower, red - indoor in peet, winter sown worked great. Indoor very leggy.
Pok Choi - another leggy plant, winter sown much better.

MARCH 12
Direct sowed outside:
Amaranth - VERY slow to germinate (April 4), then withered with heat or cold. Winter sown are the best option so far. Second attempt at direct sowing done in May.
Broccoli - sprouted 8 days later
Sinach - sprouted 10 days later

MARCH 13
Direct sowed outside:
Cabbage - sprouted 9 days later
Lettuce, butterhead - sprouted 9 days later
Onions, sweet yellow - direct sown seems best

Bought 4" starts of:
Cilantro - will not grow again, too short of life cycle
Dill - will get again, but later in spring (or plant from seed)
Marjoram - love it, but bought it too soon... needed lots of TLC while indoors, great once planted in outdoor pot
Spearmint - Planted out right away and withstood unexpected snow and frost without problems

Winter sowed:
Broccoli - Better off direct sown
Peas, sugar snap - performed equal to direct sown peas

MARCH 20
Planted up tomatoes and tomatillos into 4" pots

MARCH 21
Major frost this am
Borage - bought 4" pot. Now in May is approaching 3ft tall. Great plant
Swiss Chard Bought starter pack too soon. Planted some out this week, they were hit really hard several times, but finally pulled through and started looking good by the end of may
Cauliflower - planted out 3 days later. 2 of the 4 didn't make it through major heat spell in May. Other two look great.

MARCH 24
Winter sowed:
Basil - lots came up, but I didn't keep track of dates
Beans, pole - only few came up... maybe the container it was in?
Beans, bush - came up in droves way earlier than I would have planted seeds directly. WS worked great.
Cucumber, lemon - 50% sprouted. Again, earlier than I would have direct sown.
Cucumber, Babylon - Zero out of 8 sprouted. Direct sowed in May.

Up planted tomatoes into gallon pots.

MARCH 26
Bought small sprouting shallots at the asian market, planted in 6" deep plastic "window box" planters.

MARCH 27
Pok Choi, winter sowed. Turned out much better than indoor. Harvested first batch a little later than should have... May 18th.

MACH 28
It snowed today!!!

MARCH 31
Lettuce, Bibb - winter sowed. Appears to be hardiest leafy green thus far, no bugs yet! (in May)

Welcome to My Garden

Welcome to my first garden. I am focusing most of my efforts on growing vegetables and herbs this year. I do have a small strip of planting space for perennials, but that is mostly filled from plants that I bought right after moving into this house last summer.

This is the vegetable plot. It is approximately 6 feet by 24 feet. At the far end are some leafy greens that are just starting to put out true leaves: Spinach, Cabbage, Lettuce, Pak Choi, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Chard, and Sugar Snap Peas. Up close is Borage.

On the deck I have the containers, mostly for my herb garden. It is still pretty bare bones right now. On the far right are two pots of oregano, one "hot & spicy" and another ornamental "Kent Beauty". The latter almost died inside over winter, but show signs of a slow recovery. Next to the oreganos, there is a container of catmint and spearmint. The catmint is from the garden last fall and is quite healthy. I am a little concerned it is going to swallow up the spearmint. There are also some chives that just won't take off. I may put them in a bigger pot soon to see if that helps. In the far pots I just recently planted several types of basil, some from the nursery and some I started from seed, as well as cilantro, sweet marjoram, and a couple planter flowers for color accent. I am yet to decide what will go in the main large planter pot. Maybe an ornamental pepper? It is still too daunting of a decision, so I am putting it off.