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| Steve will be at Bales Garden Center twice a week to offer advice and ideas |
March Musings
From The Green Thumb Garden Coach, Steve Beilman
Welcome to coy March, my fellow “can’t wait to start” gardeners! March is quite the tease. She tempts us with a few days of almost balmy weather conditions, driving us to ask for tomato and basil plants at our neighborhood garden center, followed by another blast of winter conditions, making us feel foolish. Nevertheless, it is an important transition time from winter gardening fantasies to real plans and actions to be taken whenever a little window of opportunity opens.
The key question to ask ourselves during this time is, “Am I ready to take full advantage of any time Mother Nature offers me, to make my gardening goals for this year a successful reality?” This overall question then can be divided into more specific project areas. First, we may want to review our hardscaping and infrastructure, and determine if there is a need for any repairs or improvements we could make at this time. Garden beds, watering systems, container groupings, trellises, pathways, lighting, are just a few examples.
Another area to inventory involves all the things necessary to garden. Do we have all the tools we need and are they in working order? Have we ordered all the seeds we wanted to try this year? Do we have all the pots, trays, starting soils we want to begin our projects? This could lead to a Pandora’s box of potential considerations, so don’t get hung up and overwhelmed, resulting in just flopping in front of the TV or laptop and giving up before we even start.
A third area is actually getting started in the garden with projects that are appropriate for this time of year. Pruning of roses, fruit trees, and other ornamentals should be done now. It is an excellent time for soil testing, preparation, and amending. The most important amendment is always organic material. Everything else enhances our most basic requirement for gardening, our soil.
Crops that are appropriate to plant whenever a day of opportunity opens include: potatoes, peas, greens, radishes, carrots, beets, turnips, onions, and cabbage family plants. Bare root fruit trees, berries, roses, and other hardy ornamentals get a good start if planted at this time. There is a whole list of early herbaceous perennials available at local garden centers, including, bellis, euphorbia, heuchera, myosotis, and arabis spring charm, to name just a few. Ask an experienced professional or fellow gardener for advice.
Come to think about it, stop reading this article about gardening now. Get up. Put on a jacket, and let’s get busy! March can be a most delightful time to meet the neighbors again as we venture out into the garden. Happy gardening from your neighbor and green thumb garden coach.
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