Spring 2023 - March Planting

If you have a garden and a library, 

you have everything you need.

 – Marcus Tullius Cicero

I was supposed to be hiking this weekend, but crashed and burned - allergies or 24 hour bug or something. So the hike was cancelled and I got a great deal of rest. It's been great. Clearly I need to pace myself more.

So my dishes aren't done and clothes still need to be folded. But the garden needed work - trimming and planting. I've been doing it in bits and pieces...

I'd picked up some onions, tomatoes, a Serrano, a cucumber, some seed potatoes, chard, collards, and some flowers during the week. Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know. It's too early to plant. Or it's too late. It is really almost impossible to tell considering the crazy weather we have been having (freezes followed by 80 degree weather).

[Last year I had scheduled a couple of trips* and so I hesitated to plant and missed whatever window we had - climate change being what it is (CHAOS). But I planted anyway and had a decent year.]

Allergies kept me home for two days. I rested. I focused on the raised beds. I thought again about what vegetables I actually eat (and will eat every day). I remembered things I want to experiment with (two potato bags!).

So in between removing dead branches (piling them up - recovering from disarray after storms blew through - and stuffing them into bags) and resting, I placed plants (still in pots) in places and finally dug them in and watered them.

I should have enough onions.

One tomato, the cucumber and all the chard appear to have been attacked by cutworms. Everything else has perked up.

I left room for things I forgot and for plants promised by my gardening friend and other promised by my brother.

There's still plenty of work to be done, but it can wait until free afternoons.

These disordered notes will be edited (or not). I just needed to document what's happening out there for future reference (should I need it)

I use cages for peppers as well as tomatoes. I also have some fence panels I've wanted to use that will be added near the Juliet tomato if I can figure out how to do it.

Pepper in the corner. Chard and collards waiting for planting. Onions moved and some new ones planted. 

Those chard plants across the middle? Ignore them. They are kaput! Will have to start again.

Two kinds of parsley and a dill in the grey pot to the right. I like to put all the herbs around the outside of the vegetable garden. I plant these three for butterflies and moths anyway.

One of the tomatoes I didn't need.

My brother gave me this collard and I eat some of it most days.

The onions already planted are joined by others. 

Bagging up the last 4 bags of dead stuff...maybe 5.

Lots of stuff. I need to prune more. We are told to leave things for the bugs and birds, but I won't do that until I have to hire yard help. For now I like to make all the bad decisions myself.

I'm ending with some gardening rules. I was looking for something else, but found this. It's pretty good. I wish I had written it.

THE THREE YEAR RULE FOR STARTING A GARDEN**

Having a garden is rewarding, yet challenging, for a number of reasons, but you can’t beat having fresh produce picked only minutes before. So, if you’re thinking of starting a garden, whether it’s only a couple of planters to a 30′ x 60′ plot, don’t expect it to be what you want during your first season. Reason being is it takes three years to get a garden that produces what you want and looks good.

Year 1 – You’ll plant things that you think you’ll use, but don’t, some plants will take up more or less space than you were expecting and some plants take a 2-3 years to get established before they start producing a reasonable amount, strawberries and asparagus are a couple. You’ll also plant things to close together and you’ll have an overgrown mess.

Year 2 – You’ll tweak the plant selection a bit and produce more of what you’ll use and you’ll have a better grasp on how to space your plants.

Year 3 – You’ll pretty much have things dialed in on what you want. You may still have some issues with things being overgrown, but they are greatly diminished from year one.

Past year three it’s just a matter of fine tuning things to make your garden that much better.

One final rule I quote all the time is "don't plant more than you can weed." It's a rule from my mom. I'm there. I think I'll quote it every time I talk about this garden so I don't forget.

NOTES:

* I am always ready to travel and I have grandchildren I would like to visit as well. Those would be sufficient "long trips" unlike last year's crazy travel.

**Posted on 03-07-2018 by Zach Instruction © 2023 Good. Simple. Best.