Gardening for Good: Week 6

Getting focused!

This project is forcing me to take a more deliberate approach to my garden planning. For the first time, I am scheduling when I will start seeds inside, when seeds should be directly sown into the garden, and when I can plan on transplanting seedlings.

As I mentioned last week, I purchased a copy of the Maria Thun Biodynamic Almanac. Though I am not ready to follow biodynamic teachings and methods in their entirety, from my initial research and the almanac, I think the calendar is an intriguing tool.

I also recently found an interesting tool through The Old Farmer's Almanac. It provides a planting calendar specific to your zip code! It lists the best planing times based on frost dates and based on moon dates.

So, I took the planting calendar from the Old Farmer's Almanac and compared it to the calendar from the Maria Thun Biodynamic Almanac. They matched up very nicely! I used Maria Thun's pull-out poster (shown in the photo to the right) to annotate what seeds I need to plant when.

According to this plan, April 6th is going to be a busy morning! I should be starting some greens (lettuces, kale, spinach, chard), brassicas (Romanesco, Tokyo Bekana), cucumbers, peas, and squashes. Of note, the very first task to land on my calendar is planting pepper seeds this Wednesday, March 6th, followed by leek and scallion on the 9th.

The other task I completed this week is something I look forward to every year. The Natick Community Organic Farm opened its seedling orders last Wednesday. After considering how many seedlings I can realistically try to start on my own, I decided what this year's seedling order would look like. I will happily be sending in my order form on Monday.

Though this deliberate planning definitely took more time and consideration, it was an interesting process. I hope it will also prove rewarding! We will find out in the coming months what worked for me, what didn't, and what I can do differently the next year.

Also, in other news, my first couple batches of microgreens have been a great success! The photo below was taken a few days ago when this tray was about 10 days old. I can't believe it took me so long to discover these quick, easy, and delicious greens that I can grow on the windowsill all year long.

Happy March!