Planting Season

Unlikely to get more frost, so spring gardening approaches.  I did rather well this winter.  Having made a decision last year that vegetables go in the ground in the backyard, while culinary herbs grow in pots outside my front door and in my living room, some of my culinary crop survived.  I have a decent stem of rosemary, a somewhat straggly stem of sage, and a pot of spearmint that has begun its annual recurrence.  In the three chia pots, parsley has big leaves, though not that many.  Chives have been straggly, while basil underperformed previous chia attempts.  The hydroponic aerogarden's dill has overflowed and oregano grows abundantly.  Cilantro was a dud on two attempts.  Sage has sprouted from seed.  Chives has only a few leaves but probably enough for a sandwich.  Basil planted indoors did not sprout, probably due to excessively soggy soil.  Pot put outside to dry a bit, and I have plenty of fresh seeds for a do-over, or to plant basil in a different pot and use the soggy one for something else.

While different plants have different optimal direct in-ground times to plant seeds or transplant vegetables grown from seeds indoors, for my region, the weeks between Passover and Mother's Day seem the calendar's sweet spot.  My pot collection exceeds what I really want to plant.  Moreover, each year Shop-Rite sells discounted flourishing basil, chives, and parsley in containers that I can simply transplant to larger containers all ready for harvest.  I must choose primarily which herbs I want to grow, then enrich the soil, plant the seeds, and label what I have planted in each pot or subsection of a larger pot.

The backyard poses more of a challenge.  I've been formatting the vegetables in the manner of a Square Foot Garden, mostly with disappointing results.  I also have an accessory area that I misjudged trying to plant beets and carrots.  Basically, I have few weed problems because the landscaper many years ago installed weedblock cloth in the defined beds.  My two 4x4 foot beds will generate 32 squares.  The weedblock layer, however, limits my ability to grow root vegetables, despite a previous attempt to make the soil thicker.  Moreover, tomatoes grown from small pots purchased at a top nursery overtake the square allotted to them.  They grow leaves and stems that exceed the ability of my plastic stakes to maintain them upright.  It does not help, that the weedblock layer makes it difficult to insert the supporting stakes as deeply as I might like.  The abundance of green and paucity of fruit suggests that the nutrient mix needs to be better.  Since tomatoes are one of the reliable plants that always taste better from my garden than what the supermarket, or even farmer's market can offer, this gets priority.  I think I will only grow two plants this year, allotting each two square feet, and supporting with cages instead of stakes.  Eggplant and peppers also never reach their potential when grown from nursery pots.  Peppers are easily obtainable at the supermarket, but eggplant more expensive.  My bok choy and lettuce never produce.  Swiss chard is iffy.  Green beans sprout, but the harvest is difficult.  Maybe four squares this year, and a different four than previous years.  Vining plants like cucumber and squash often do well.  Since they need room to spread out, they can only be planted at the outer squares of the grid, but they often produce a very gratifying yield.  This may be the place for that accessory planting portion separate from the 4x4 grid, or maybe even a reason to use a linear rather than grid format for this year's vegetable garden..

Then, once I know what to plant, I need to get the seeds or shoots.  Many of my seed packets are quite old.  I should get some fresh packets.  The best price on seedlings is always Home Depot on sale or the local nursery.  I've priced seeds several places.  I prefer the local hardware store, not because they are better seeds or better value, but because I am grateful for the many times they made it easy to get the home maintenance items I needed in a trouble-free way.  I can spend a little more for loyalty, but I also need selection.  The best prices on seeds seem to be Walmart.  Target sells Burpee for slightly more, but it's a good deal closer than Walmart.  Lowe's seemed expensive.  Home Depot is out of the way, worth it for plants, not for seeds.

So it seems best to invest the week before Passover and Chol HaMoed on planning.  What to plant, herbs and vegetables, which squares or even whether to continue this Square Foot format.  The soil will need to be enriched, so a few packages of organic soil enricher, maybe get a soil test, maybe consider some chemical additives.  Buy a couple of tomato cages.  Then mark and plant and set a maintenance schedule.  Indoor went well this winter.  No insurmountable obstacles to duplicating a reasonable herb and vegetable yield outdoors this season.