Easy Street Gardening
Weekly, step-by-step guidance for gardening on the front range.
Each week, this newsletter will contain three sections:
How things are going
I will share an update on my garden as a point of reference for how my weekly tasks are adding up and looking.
What to do this week
Here I will present the 3 - 5 things I am planning or doing this week.
Resources
A deeper dive into information and perspectives that are inspiring or informing my gardening.
If you are coming to this newsletter mid-season, please take a look at the posts from the past few weeks to get a sense of context for where we are at this week!
Week 10: 3/3/2024 - 3/9/2024
How things are going:
This week I am starting to feel a small sense of urgency to make sure my preparations for the coming spring and summer plantings are in motion. To act on this feeling, I have reviewed my goals, and thought about how my actions were lining up with them, or not. One thing I hadn’t finished yet was mapping out my garden beds with the summer plantings. These are the plants that will go in mid-May to replace my spring plants.
So based on my goals, I mapped out the beds, using a 1x1 square foot approximation for where different plants will go.
Having this all mapped out is helping me plan all the seedlings I am going to need to start later this month. My peppers are already underway, but little else at this point. I also still need to order some of these seeds, like radicchio and beans. The planning I am doing this week will inform the work I do next week, ordering seeds, and making sure I have potting soil and seed starting trays ready for all these seedlings. I want to have everything in place by the last week of March, to start my summer vegetables in the house.
I have also spent the week tending to my peppers and spring crop seedlings. The lettuces and kales are growing well. Many of the peppers are also growing well. Some have reached a point where I need to pot them up. I’ve been popping the bigger ones out of their current tray cells to take a look at their roots, looking for signs of the roots coiling around the bottom. When I see this, it is time for a bigger pot.
Not all of my pepper seedlings have germinated yet. I am still tending to the unsprouted ones, but it has reached a point where I am going to try a second round, with a different method. I had better results this year, starting the seeds upstairs, in a warmer part of the house, but it still wasn’t close to 100 percent. I am going to use my heat mat, plus putting the trays into a close clear plastic bin, to create a mini greenhouse. We will see how that goes! I want to get these underway now, before I need to shift my attention to my summer seedlings.
What to do this week:
Here’s what to do:
Review your goals for the year! Spring is fast approaching. Make sure you have your goals clearly outlined, your maps and schedules buttoned up, and you are using them to prepare for the season.
If you want to sow some spring crops, you can start doing so in March, especially with season extensions.
Prepare for sowing your summer crop seedlings toward the end of the month. Make sure you have seeds, soil, trays, lights, heating pads, a fan, and a good place to assemble all of this in your house.
Next week:
Seedling starting systems
Resources:
Resource 1
When you are making your garden maps, it’s good to consider companion planting!