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.