Peaceworks
Thoughts about what it means to pursue a life that includes faith, justice, peace, integrity, and sustainability.
Saturday, March 9, 2024
Timing is Everything
This time of year, where I live, we are in the middle of the season of
preparation for planting, and early spring gardening. January was the time to
send our soil samples to our local extenstion agency for analysis (to learn what
needs to be adjusted and added) to plan our garden, and to order seeds.
Winter is the time for making the recommended
adjustments and additions to the soil, so that we know it will be fertile and
loamy and properly prepped for the tiny baby seeds we can't wait to pop into it.
Knowing the proper timing of things is important. Many people think only in terms of a summer garden, with plants such as
tomatoes, cucumber, and squash. Those plants are only put into the ground after
all danger of frost has passed. But did you know that there are some plants that
can be planted well before the last frost date?
If we put seeds in the ground too soon, early spring frosts may kill them. If we wait too late (especially in
my climate that gets very hot, very fast), the fruits and vegetables we plant
may not ripen in time for a good spring harvest. What does it take to know and
understand this timing? For one, it takes educating one's self. Each of us, if
we are interested in gardening, needs to learn about the average date when the
last frost occurs where we live. This average date will determine when we plant
things that would be killed by such a frost.
If we go get a bit more
sophisticated, we can get a soil temperature gauge and measure the temperature
of our soil. The germination of seeds is dependent upon the temperature of the
soil. Each plant has a different germination temperature. We can time our
planting to correspond with the best soil temperature.
Besides sweet peas, cool weather crops include onions, carrots, beets, turnips, parsnip, cilantro, dill, collards, kale, chard, bok choi, cabbage, and many more. These plants thrive in the cooler weather and will actually not do as well in the hot weather of summer. There are also plants that are perennial such as asparagus, strawberry, blueberry, and blackberry, that are planted now (while they're dormant), from transplanted bare-root plants.
Many serious gardeners also get a jump start on their spring garden by planting the seeds for their summer crops indoors (often
with grow lights and special plant heating pads), so that the plants are
actually seedlings several inches tall by the time it's warm enough to plant them
outside. If we are industrious, we can also raise the soil temperature and
protect tender seedlings from frost damage by covering our garden rows with
plastic (called row covers). Row covers capture warmth from the sun and holds it
in (raising soil temperature) and also protect young plants from the cold night
air.
I hope this post will encourage you to plan your garden and to think in terms of a bit longer growing season! To extend our growing season, we just need to know what seeds to plant when, and also can expand this timing by starting some seeds indoors under grow lights so that they'll be larger by the time of the last frost date.
English peas (and sugar snap peas and snow peas also), can be planted in the
garden as soon as the ground "can be worked." (This means they can be planted as
soon as the soil is no longer freezing temperature.) White potatoes can be
planted any time the soil temperature is above 45 degrees F (7.2 degrees C).
Other "cold tolerant" plants include collard greens, kale, turnips, rutabaga,
chard, cabbage, beets, carrots, bok choi, and arugula. Spinach and lettuce can
be planted after the soil is a little warmer.
Don't take my word for it! To learn more, first
learn your planting zone by clicking
HERE. Then,
do a google search for a "planting calendar," but naming your particular
planting zone.
I live in planting zone 8b. My planting calendar (pictured above) will look very
different from someone who is in a colder planting zone (such as 4A) or a warmer
planting zone (such as 9B). But in the meantime, no matter what your planting zone, January, February, March is the time
for preparing your soil, planning your garden (what you want to plant, where and
when) and ordering or acquiring your seeds!
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Seven "C's" of Effective Communication
In a webinar that I recently attended, the speaker listed "Seven C's of Effective Communication." I thought it was a good list. Here they are:
- Clear
- Concise
- Concrete
- Correct
- Coherent
- Complete
- Courteous
What do you think?
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