Cascadian Farm Organic Goodness

This year in our new yard, we have decided to build a raised bed for our garden. A raised bed can be built with a variety of non-toxic materials: concrete blocks, brick, untreated wood. (Treated wood contains toxic chemicals that can leach into the soil and enter the plants.)  Sunset has great step-by-step instructions to create a 4’ x 8’ wood bed. A four-foot width, with sides 12–16 inches high, is ideal because it allows you to sit on the edge and reach into your plants. A raised bed has many other advantages:

• Space saving—since you do not need walking space between each row (only between beds), they take up less space.
• Longer planting season—raised beds warm up earlier in the spring and hold onto heat longer in the fall, allowing you earlier and later planting.
• Reduced soil compaction because you don’t walk on the growing medium.
• Better drainage and retention of water, as well as aeration of the soil due to the minimal soil compaction.
• Bigger yields due to greater root development—the benefits to the soil benefit the plants!

Do you have raised beds in your garden? What benefits have you found?

Image Source: “raised bed” by Aka Hige

The time has come to start making your dream garden a reality - start planting seeds indoors. Vegetable garden favorites like tomatoes and peppers have a long growing season so you can start seeds now to have seedlings ready to plant by May.

First, select a container. You can use a cell pack or individual containers. I typically recycle plastic containers, approximately 4 inches is a good size. Regardless of the container, make sure that you clean it thoroughly first. Soak it in a solution of nine parts water to one part bleach for a half hour to kill any bacteria.

Next, fill pot with potting soil or a seed starter. You can make your own using one part each of peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite. Saturate the soil with water and let it drain. Read seed packet instructions for planting depth, then scatter seeds, cover with recommended amount of soil and water lightly.

Keep seeds warm (between 75F and 90F) until they germinate. Most nurseries sell thin waterproof heating pads you can use to maintain temperature if necessary. Once the seeds sprout, they can be moved to a brightly lit area with temperatures between 60F and 75F.

Lastly, vegetable seeds need a lot of light. If you don’t have an adequate spot, you can supplement with a fluorescent grow light. Make sure the seedlings are in a location with good ventilation and try not to over water them - you do not want them standing in water for too long.

Have you started seeds yet?

Photo by jeremy_w_osborne

As the weather cools, it's important not to forget about your garden. Now is the time to finish the harvest, put food up for the colder months and get ready for the growing season to come. So often people just abandon their growing efforts late in the season, figuring they are done, but a little preparation now will go a long way in the spring.

Here are a few things you can do for your garden in the fall:

Perennials

Divide and split plants that have outgrown their space about 4 weeks before the frost date in your area to give the plant time to send roots down before it gets too cold for them to do so. Cut back dead foliage, leaving the basal crown on plants like Shasta daisies and down to the ground for herbaceous plants like hostas and daylilies where all the above-ground foliage dies during the winter. I like to leave my hydrangea flowers up after they've browned and dried to catch the snow. It adds some visual appeal to that part of my garden even after the snowfall.

Composting

Cut foliage and leaves can be added to your compost pile before the frost to break down to use as fertilizer come spring. You can also spread compost on your strawberry plants in the fall after the harvest is over.

Turn the Soil

After you've harvested all your plants, pulled up dead ones to compost and have an empty garden bed, fall is the perfect time to turn the soil. Turning the soil will mix the nutrients and get the ground ready for spring planting.

Plant Seeds

You can plant some reseeding perennials in the fall so that they come up in the early spring. There are fantastic online resources to help you decide which seeds can or should be planted now so that you are enjoying them as soon as possible. You could also try your hand at having a winter garden as well, planting seeds now and growing them in the winter. Your ability to do this will depend on your geographical area and climate, but it can be very rewarding to have winter carrots and leeks to cook with.

What do you do with your garden in the fall?

Photos by Shaina Olmanson

In my last post I talked about creating a garden planting schedule for spring to help you keep track of when you can start sowing seeds for various vegetables. Although some seeds do best sown directly into the soil, many vegetables (especially those that are sensitive to cold or have a long growing season) benefit from being started indoors. Growing from seed not only gives you an early start, but you can order more varieties of veggies than you would be able to purchase locally as seedlings. Since starting a plant from seed may be new to some of you I thought a quick 101 course would be helpful. Here are the basics:

1. Purchase high quality seeds or if you’re using seeds from the previous year’s garden test them first.

2. Select the right container for planting. Peat pots or pellets (made of compressed peat) can be planted directly outdoors, which is great for plants with fragile roots. If you are using a terracotta or plastic pot, wash it thoroughly prior to planting. Plastic cell packs are very convenient when sowing a large amount of seeds.

3. Use an organic soilless seed-starting mix comprised of milled peat moss, vermiculite and perlite. Do not use a topsoil mix.

4. Label all seeds with date and variety. A tray beneath the containers is good for bottom watering and covering the seeds with clear plastic wrap aids in germination.

5. Provide adequate light. Set up grow lights (full spectrum fluorescents) directly above seeds to warm the soil and provide required light (raise lights higher as seedlings grow).

These are just five pointers; you can always ask your local nursery for more help getting started. For those readers with gardening experience, please comment and share your best tips for seed starting.

Related post: Veggies 101: How to start a Vegetable Garden

March is here and spring, my favorite season, is right around the corner. I have garden fever and am anxious to get my hands dirty again! I am starting to think about what I want to grow in my vegetable garden this year. I know the thought of gardening seems really far off to those of you still covered in snow, but you can actually start sowing seeds indoors for certain plants months before the last frost.

But how do you know which plants to start when? Or when you’ll be able to plant directly into the soil? If you’re like me, it’s a relatively new concept to actually plan these things and not just pick a random warm weekend to get started. Well, I found a great online Vegetable Garden Planting Calendar that takes the guess work out of planting. All you do is plug in the date of the last spring frost in your area and it gives you the start date for everything from onion and broccoli to tomatoes and corn.

So how do you know when the last frost is? You can get a good idea from this growing zone map on Burpee’s site which divides the country by average lowest winter temperature. These zones are used in many gardening guides and nurseries to let you know the right time for planting in your area. However, you need an actual date for your city to calculate your planting calendar, which I found here. Now all I have to do is decide what I’m going to grow and mark those date on my calendar. This y ear I want to try a few new things like cucumber and eggplant. What veggies are you going to grow in your garden this year?