March Zone 7

Bed 1							Bed 2
1  ft.			1 ft.				1 ft.	1 ft.
Kale						1	Kale
Spinach						2	Spinach
Peas						3	Swiss Chard	Peas
						4
						5	Tatsoi
						6	Kohl rabi
Bed 3							Bed 4
						1	Kohlrabi	Peas
						2	Tatsoi
						3	Red Mustard
						4
Radishes						5 Trellis		Radish and Carrots
						6 Trellis

Overview

In zone 7, if you are growing corn, March is the month to plant it.

What does the Windowsill look like in March?

Sweet Bell Peppers, Eggplant, Tomato, Lettuces, Rainbow Chard and Kohlrabi seedlings are growing.

What do the garden beds look like in March?

Start Off- Direct Sow

Continue to succession sow (16) Radish, Cherry Belle and/or (16) Radish, White Icicle in section 6 of beds three and four, and Direct sow (32) Carrots, Scarlet Nantes in with the radishes in bed 4.

Direct sow (9) Pea, Oregon Giant Snow near a pea trellis.

Direct sow (16) Mustard, Tatsoi in 1/2 row 2 in bed 4

Direct sow Mustard, Red Giant in 1/2 rows 3 and 4 of bed 4

Direct sow (9) Spinach, American and (9) Spinach, Bloomsdale in row 2 of beds 1 and 2.

Start Off- Transplant

Transplant (18) Kohlrabi, White and Purple Vienna in row 1, bed 4

Transplant Kale, Blue Curled Scotch,  and Kale, Red Russian in betwen the kale that were direct sown last month.

 

March 5, 2023

Yo Lo Wonder Sweet Bell Peppers

Sow Indoors

When seedlings appear, remove the two weakest seedlings, leaving the strong to keep growing. 

Blue Curly Leaf Kale and Red Russian Kale

Transplant

Kale seedlings should be making good progress. Water twice a week to keep the soil moist.

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Sow Indoors

Rainbow Swiss Chard can be sown indoors in peat pots, hardening them off before planting in the bed.

American, Bloomsdale and Viroflay Spinach

Direct Sow

This is a fast growing hardy crop that likes cooler temperatures. You can pick them when young for baby spinach which is great in salads. Two rows should fit in a 1-foot section. You may sow the seeds directly in the bed or in pots on the windowsill to be planted out in 3-4 weeks when there is room. Either way, seeds need to be planted 1 inch deep, about 1 seed every ½ inch. Cover seeds lightly and water thoroughly.

Purple and White Vienna Kohlrabi

Sow Indoors

Sow seeds indoors, one seed per module as they have an excellent germination rate.

Sow ½ inch deep, cover with soil and water. The seedlings will be ready to transplant in four weeks.

Peas

Direct Sow

There are three main types of peas but they are all grown in the same way. Shelling peas are what are packed in canned peas and need to be taken out of their pods before eating. Snow peas (called mangetout by the English), on the other hand, have pods which are eaten whole and are flat because they are harvested before the peas inside have grown plump. Sugar Snap peas also have edible pods but with fat peas inside. Peas are fairly easy to grow but they need supports and moist soil to produce a good crop. Dwarf pea varieties are best for raised beds as they require less space. Peas don’t like their roots disturbed, and so for that reason are often directly sown in the garden bed, but some have been able to grow peas in rain gutters or in deep peat pots and then transferred out into the garden without much disturbance to their roots. If grown indoors, keep them on the windowsill until they reach 3-4 inches tall and turn them once a day to prevent them from leaning towards the light as they are growing. Be careful not to let the seedlings dry out.

SOWING PEAS IN A RAIN GUTTER

Since I grow rows of peas in an 2-foot-wide raised bed, I can sow peas in two-foot sections of vinyl rain gutters that can be reused from old gutters or bought from a local home center. Cut the gutter into sections that fit your garden bed. It’s possible to purchase end caps for them, but you can make temporary ends with cardboard, taping them in place. After filling the gutters with pre-moistened seed-starting mix, plant the peas in the gutters at the beginning of March in a double row of seeds in each one with a goal of getting a thick stand of seedlings. The seeds germinate quickly. Frequently monitor the moisture in the seed-starting mix so it doesn’t dry out. Allow the seedlings to develop a thick mat of roots, which takes a good three weeks. As soon after this point, and it is warm enough to plant outside, the hardening-off process can begin. This involves putting them outside where you plan to plant them for an hour the first day, then moving them back indoors. On the second day, they are outside for two hours. Keep increasing the time until you can plant them in the garden.

March 13, 2023

Nantes Carrots

Direct Sow

Sow carrots thinly in a shallow trench of about ¼ inch. Drop seeds about ½ inch apart to avoid having to thin later.Gently cover with soil and water with a fine mist to avoid sending seeds everywhere. Germination can take up to three weeks, but continue to keep well watered.

March 17, 2023

Lettuce

Indoor Sow

To get a head start, start seeds indoors about 1 month before the last spring frost date (which for zone 7 is April 17).

Giant Red Mustard Greens

Direct Sow

Giant Red Mustard has purple-red leaves with a delicious, strong, sharp, almost garlic-like, mustard flavor. The leaves are tasty stir-fried or boiled and is a great pickling variety. Because Giant Red Mustard is another leafy green vegetable in the mustard family, it prefers cooler seasons, and can even tolerate light frosts. It prefers 6 hours of sun however it is more tolerant of shade than fruiting vegetables like tomatoes. It will grow well in most soils, but will produce best in rich, well-drained, loose soil with a pH of no less than 6.0. 

Sow mustard seeds ¾ inch deep and 1 ½ inches apart. Mustard seeds generally take eight to ten days to germinate. They can be thinned as needed to give the plants room to grow.

Tatsoi

Direct Sow or Indoor Sow

This Asian Mustard is a fast growing cool weather loving plant. They do not like root disturbance during transplanting so you will need to sow them in biodegradable pots. The seeds should be planted about ½ deep in moist compost, about 2 per pot. They should germinate in one to two weeks.

March 25, 2021

Radish

Harvest

Radishes are the first crop to be harvested this year. Pull aside the leaves and check the size of the radish roots. If they are about 2 inches wide, they are ready to harvest. Gently pull the base of the leaves and pull the root out. Go down the row in this manner and you will be thinning them, allowing the smaller radishes to have more room to grow.

Two weeks after that, the first row should be harvested and can be re-sown. This can be a continuous succession sowing until the weather gets too hot for the radishes to thrive.