The March Garden

With the arrival of March upon us, comes the hopes and desires for another successful farming year. The seed catalogs that we poured during the wintermonths have all been ordered from, and a number of trays have already been seeded with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and lettuces, which will be transplantedwhen the plants are mature enough to be set out in the field.

Although it will be some time yet before our summer crops are planted, our spring plantings are well underway with lettuce, spinach, onions,radishes and a variety of other spring greens leading the harvest! Also, our hoop houses are beginning to fill up with bountiful beds of carrots, beets,onions, arugula and cabbage.

At home, I have a good number of Ziploc bags of beans, corn, peas, butterbeans, cucumber, pumpkin and squash seeds. I am readyto begin planting those seeds as soon as the seasons turn, and we have days where the soil is warm enough to germinate seeds.

We will know that we are well underway when empty fields begin to take on shades of green from emerging seedlings.

John Coykendall, Master Gardener