Still Winter In March

Old Man Winter doesn't want to go away.  After a light snow dusting last weekend the prediction is for snow showers tomorrow.  It is wreaking avoc on the herbs that I transplanted outside.  Every time there is a chance of snow or bitter cold I am putting plastic buckets over the new transplants to give them a chance to make it through the bad weather. 

I purchased 10 new raspberry plants of Polana  variety and 10 plants of Anna variety to plant in the garden.  Over the last couple of years I have lost a large number of my once vigorous and thriving raspberry patch.  When reading the instructions on how to care to for the plants I purchased, it specifically says, "Do not water more than 1-3 times per week".  Yikes! I was using a trickle watering system twice a day.  I very likely introduced a virus or rotted the roots.  Learned my lesson and won't do that again.

Raddichio

Last year I purchased Cicoria seeds, and didn't realize it was also Radicchio.  The packaging was from Europe with not a whole of information that was in a dozen languages.  Although I expected the two species were at least closely related from looking at the package. It grew very prolific - it was an excellent producer and fast grower but not what what I expected.  It grew loose green leaves into the fall.  I thought, "They put the wrong seeds in the package!"   Much to my surprise after a very cold winter, the plants came back.  This red and the plants bulbed.   I little research on the Internet told me that heading chicories and radicchios initially have a mass of loose green or reddish leaves that with time form a heart and with cold weather the radicchios turn red. In Virginia it might have been better to sow late summer to autumn and be patient.

My Arugula is the first seeds in the garden to sprout.  I was walking through the garden and noticed that the small green sprouts were coming up on March 18th after putting them in the garden on the 8th.

March 14th

Even though we will have a lot of cold mornings here in Virginia before the last freeze, it is still time to get many cold hardy vegetables going in the garden.  I have planted collard, lettuce, radish, and spinach seeds as well as a crop of onions.  I don't know why but my best crop of radishes every year is the first.  After that the radishes grown nice green tops but don't bulb under the soil.  All of the seeds are from gardening shops except the collards seeds.  I harvested them from plants last June 2010.

I put down new landscape fabric between the rows to minimize weeds.  I know it is a sacrilege amongst purist, but I broke down this year and bought cauliflower and brussell sprouts seedlings from Lowe's hardware.  I only have so much southern window space to start seeds so I save it for a variety of tomatoes and peppers. 

Early March - Preparing the garden

It is March 10th here in Virginia and I have lettuce, spinach, arugula, and radish seeds planted in the garden.  Nothing like a 60 degree day to get you psyched for the Spring garden.  Last October I let the Fall leaves fall into the garden and act like a mulch to hold down the winter weed growth.  The only concern I have is that I notice a couple of slugs under the leaves.  Those little guys cause me misery with some of my vegetables.  The few I find meet an immediate death.  I am using a shovel to turn over the rows and bury the leaves to help fertilize the ground.  Many years I include a little 10-10-10 but I forgot this year.  I also am taking the compost bin and dumping it into a wheel barrow and using shovels where I believe the garden dirt to be less fertile.  I take a shovel full of the compost and turn it into the garden also.

I also raked all of the fall leaves out of the strawberries and weeded as I cleared out the beds.  The strawberries are looking a little sparse, but they usually do after Winter and they typically start to grow with the warm weather.

The blackberries are already starting to show tips of new growth.  I quickly got out and cleaned out last year's floricane's which have now died and pruned last year's primocanes which will become this Spring's floricane's.  My blackberries (and maybe all blackberries) are biennial fruiting plants or in simple words:  live for two years and then die.  The first year growth is called primocanes and the second year growth is called floricanes.

The oregano is coming back as always.  That stuff is basically and an Italian edible weed - just can't kill it.  It is great for the executive gardener.  Grows prodigiously and needs little love and care.  My biggest challenge is constantly cutting it back and keeping it in its borders.  I dig up and throw away a lot more than I ever eat.

Executive Gardener Overview

The Executive Gardener Blog is an exchange of information for the executive that likes to garden.  This blog is a  conversation for those who only have a little time for the garden, love getting in the dirt and growing their own fruits and vegetables and want to make sure they get results.  We are willing to pay a little extra to insure we get results.  Maybe it is buying plants rather than starting from seed which is not necessarily our preferred method of starting our plants.  Or maybe we pay a little extra for some landscape fabric so that we spend less time weeding and more time caring for our seedlings.  Whatever, it is the emphasis on results and not so much the purist process.