March 2024

 BED PREPARATION MARCH 27-APRIL 2

Prepare the garden bed where you plan to grow this crop so that it is ready to go when the time comes to seed or transplant into it.

• Clean out any vegetation (weeds, grass, old plants).

• Measure and mark out your bed (we like to use 30 inch wide beds and mark them out with string).

• Use a digging fork or broadfork to loosen the soil. Do not flip the soil over or try mixing it with the forks. Simply push the fork into the ground and pull it back lifting and loosening the soil without turning it. Be careful not to work wet soil, especially if it has clay in it. When it dries it will tend to have hard clods, making your gardening more difficult.

• Add compost and/or soil amendments (sprinkle them evenly over the bed and then mix them into the top few inches with a three tooth cultivator or similar tool). 

• Smooth the bed out with a rake 

MONTH: March	BED ONE NEAREST HOUSE ON LEFT, FACING HOUSE: FRUIT TAKES  PHOSPHORUS (NEXT YEAR BED 3)
SOWING INSIDE (Before LFD) March 6-12 (6 weeks) Black Beauty Eggplant California Wonder Pepper Jalapeno Pepper Heirloom Rainbow Blend Tomato Roma Tomato Mortgage Lifter Tomato Cherokee Purple Tomato
TRANSPLANTING (after planting) March 20-26 Lacinato Kale (35 days) Rainbow Swiss Chard (35 days) Lolla Rosa Lettuce (28 days) Parris Island Lettuce (28 days)	BED TWO BED 2: NEAREST HOUSE ON RIGHT, FACING HOUSE: ROOT TAKES POTASSIUM (NEXT YEAR BED ONE) DIRECT SOWING MARCH 20-26 Cylindra Red Beet (4 weeks) Little Finger Carrot (4 weeks) Imperator 58 Carrot (4 weeks) Snowball Turnip (4 weeks) MARCH 27-APRIL 2 Champion Radish (3 weeks)
DIRECT SOWING (Before LFD) DIRECT SOWING (Before LFD) March 20-26 Arugula (4 weeks)  Cylindra Red Beet (4 weeks) Little Finger Carrot (4 weeks) Imperator 58 Carrot (4 weeks) Viroflay Spinach (4 weeks)  Snowball Turnip (4 weeks) Peas (4 weeks) @20-26 March 27-April 2 Champion Radish (3 weeks) @27- APRIL 2	BED THREE BED 3: FARTHEST FROM THE HOUSE ON LEFT, FACING HOUSE: LEGUME LEAVES NITROGEN (NEXT YEAR BED FOUR) CULTIVATING  Peas
HARVEST	BED FOUR BED 4: FARTHEST FROM THE HOUSE ON RIGHT, FACING HOUSE: LEAF TAKES NITROGEN (NEXT YEAR BED TWO) DIRECT SEED MARCH 20-26 Arugula (4 weeks) Viroflay Spinach (4 weeks) TRANSPLANT MARCH 20-26 Lacinato Kale (35 days) Rainbow Swiss Chard (35 days) Lolla Rosa Lettuce (28 days) Parris Island Lettuce (28 days) Golden Acres Cabbage (35 days) ANY BED/N

February 2024 Sowing Inside

SOWING INSIDE

9 weeks Before LFD @ Feb 14-20

Champion Collards

Lacinato Kale

Rainbow Swiss Chard

8 weeks Before LFD @ Feb 21-27

Parris Island Lettuce

Lolla Rosa Lettuce

Giant Red Mustard

Lacinato (Dinosaur) Kale

 

The plants can grow up to three feet tall and when mature look a bit like miniature palm trees with a rosette of narrow leaves held atop straight stems. This unique kale is tolerant of both hot and cold weather, but is less winter hardy than varieties like Red Russian. You can direct seed or transplant as early as two to three weeks before the last spring frost and as late as six to eight weeks before the first fall frost. Ideal soil temperatures for seeding and transplanting are 55 F to 77 F. Kale grows best when planted in a site that offers eight to ten hours of sunshine each day. That said, you can grow kale in a partially shaded site with only four to six hours of light, but the plants will grow slower and yield fewer leaves. Kale likes well-draining, fertile soil so amend the bed with a balanced organic granular fertilizer before planting. Lacinato kale can be direct seeded in the spring garden or started indoors and transplanted outside once the seedlings are a few inches tall.  Plant one to two seeds per cell sowing them just a quarter of an inch deep. Place the containers in a sunny window or beneath a grow light giving them 14 to 16 hours of light each day. Keep the soil lightly moist, but not wet as the seeds germinate and begin to grow. Once the seedlings are a couple of inches tall, feed them with a diluted liquid organic fertilizer at half the recommended rate. Harden off the young plants before moving them to the garden. Or, you can direct sow the seeds, spacing them about four inches apart and just a quarter inch deep. Once the seedlings are a couple of inches tall, thin them 12 to 18 inches apart (be sure to eat the thinnings). Lacinato kale is an easy to grow, low-maintenance vegetable. If you didn’t incorporate any fertilizer at planting time, give the plants a dose of a liquid organic food every few weeks during the growing season. Use a fish emulsion or kelp based fertilizer. 

You can enjoy the leaves as baby greens and start picking them when the leaves are two to three inches in length. You can pull the entire young plant or just pinch off a leaf or two from each plant and leave them to continue growing.

Mature Kale grows about a foot long and the large leaves are ready to clip about two months from planting. Again, aim to pick the outer, or lowermost leaves of the plant so the center can keep growing.

November zone 7

What does the Windowsill look like in October?

What do the garden beds look like in October?

Start Off- Direct Sow

Start Off- Transplant

Grow On

Harvest

(4) Kale, Blue Curled Scotch August 1 in beds 1 and 2, section 1.

(4) Kale, Red Russian in Beds 1 and 2, section 1.

(9) Leek, American Flag are growing on in Bed 2, section 6.

(8) Swiss Chard, Rainbow in Bed 2, section 4

November 16, 2023

Cylindra Beets

Harvest

Beets can tolerate temperatures to 28 degrees F. but before then you will need to harvest the whole row. Pull up the roots by gripping the base of the stems and pulling upward. Knock off any excess soil. Both the root and the leaves can be eaten.

Lettuce

Harvest

If there is time for the lettuces to mature, some will develop hearts and become ready to pick. Otherwise, you may harvest the outer leaves as a cut-and-come-again crop. The center will continue to produce more leaves.

Purple Top White Globe Turnip

Harvest

Keep your eye on these fast growing roots and catch them before they get too big by looking at the top of the roots poking above the soil. Harvest when they are about the size of golf balls by holding the stems at their base and pulling upwards. They will survive frosts.

November 19, 2023

Nantes Carrots

Harvest

To harvest put up at the base of the tops.

American Spinach

Harvest

October zone 7

Bed 1							Bed 2
1  ft.			1 ft.				1 ft.	1 ft.
						1
Leeks						2	Leeks
						3	Kale	Swiss Chard
						4
						5
						6
Bed 3							Bed 4
						1
						2
						3
						4
						5 Trellis
						6 Trellis

Overview

Cold-hardy plants can be planted in late August, September and even early October. Cold-hardy vegetables that can withstand heavy frost of air temperatures below 28 include spinach, Walla Walla sweet onion, garlic, leeks, rhubarb, rutabaga, broccoli, kohlrabi, kale, cabbage, chicory, Brussels sprouts, corn salad, arugula, fava beans, radish, mustard, Austrian winter pea and turnip.

Semi-hardy vegetables that can withstand light frost of air temperatures in the range of 28 to 32 degrees include beets, spring market carrots, parsnip, lettuce, chard, pea, Chinese cabbage, endive, radicchio, cauliflower, parsley and celery.

What does the Windowsill look like in November?

What do the garden beds look like in November?

Start Off- Direct Sow

Start Off- Transplant

Grow On

(9) Leek, American Flag 

(4) Kale, Blue Curled Scotch

(4) Kale, Red Russian 

(8) Swiss Chard, Rainbow 

Harvest

(18) Turnip, Purple Top White Globe

(4) Kale, Blue Curled Scotch 

(4) Kale, Red Russian 

(8) Lettuce, Buttercrunch Head 

(9) Spinach, American

(9) Spinach, Bloomsdale in Bed 1, section 3?

(32) Carrots, Scarlet Nantes in Bed 1, section 6.

(18) Beet, Cylindra in Bed 1, section 5.

(18) Bean, Maxibel Haricot Green in Bed 2, section 5.

(18) Leek, American Flag are growing on in Bed 2, section 6.

(18) Beans, Henderson Lima in Beds 3 and 4, sections 3.

(16) Peas, Dwarf Sugar Snow in Bed 3, section 4.

(8) Beans, Scarlet Runner are growing in Bed 3, sections 5 and 6.

(18) Beans, Henderson Lima in Beds 3 and 4, section 3 

(18) Kohlrabi, White and Purple Vienna are growing in Bed 4, section 4.

(8) Bok Choi are growing in Bed 4, section 5.

(16) Radish, Black Spanish in Bed 4, section 6.

Mortgage Lifter, Cherokee Purple and Purple Bumblebee Tomatoes are growing on in Bed 3, sections 1 and 2, Bed 4, sections 1 and 2 and containers?

 October 14, 2023

Purple and White Vienna Kohlrabi

Harvest Kohlrabi.

October 21, 2023

Time to harvest a few vegetables before the first frost of the year.

Blue Curly Leaf Kale and Red Russian Kale

At last your kale is ready to harvest. Pick a few leaves at a time from each of your 8 plants.

Kale often can winter over, if the weather is not too severe. You can harvest all winter as long as you don’t harvest too much at one time.

Dwarf Sugar and Lincoln Peas

Time to harvest Dwarf Sugar and Lincoln peas.

American Flag Leeks

Finally time to begin digging up the leeks.

October 23, 2023

First Frost Date

Black Spanish Radish

If the last of the radishes haven’t developed roots, just harvest the leaves for salads.

Bloomsdale Spinach

Time to harvest Bloomsdale spinach.