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 9: 2/25/2024 - 3/2/2024
How things are going:
We’ve reached March. There are more warmer days, the sun is in the sky longer, and spring is starting to feel like it is around the corner. Of course, on the Front Range, that doesn’t mean we will be without sub-freezing nights, snow, hail, and winds. But, we must make the most of the increasingly favorable elements that we have.
I hope you’ve followed along in February, and are taking some steps to get ready for the coming spring and summer planting seasons. To review, in February here are the steps we took:
We are about a month away from when you might want to try some spring planting! If you want to grow in March, now is a good time to finish planning your garden and making sure you have the seeds you need.
Start pepper seedlings. Because they can take so long to germinate and can be slow to grow, start these the sooner the better.
If you’re not going to try spring planting, continue taking steps to map out your summer garden. Use your maps to understand how many seeds / seedlings you will need, and start making plans for how you are going to secure those by early May.
Another snowy couple of days is perfect for continuing to work on your gardening goals for the year, maps, and seedling sowing plans. Consider adding onto this by accounting for a succession of crops to follow your spring plantings.
As your plans become more concrete, now is a great time to start ordering the seeds you’ll need for the year. The more detailed your maps, the more confident you can be that your seed orders will be adequate for your planting needs.
Continue taking care of your pepper and early spring seedlings. Be patient. Stay consistent.
If you are going to grow seedlings for a May planting, make your plans and order your seeds now. We will want to start those seedlings by the end of March.
Take a look at some season extension options! Make a plan to try planting some cold hardy spring crops in early March and start gathering the materials you need to do so.
If you’ve done any of the intention setting, planting scheduling, map making, seed ordering, and pepper seedling starting, I hope you’re feeling increasingly confident that you have a clear sense of what the 2024 season will look like!
In March, my cold hardy crops that are under season extension greenhouse plastic, really start to take off. The warm days and longer exposure to sun wake up the greens that have grown slowly over the winter, and I expect that by the end of March I will be harvesting lettuce daily. I took a look under the plastic today to see how the plants were doing and to water.
If you’ve started to explore building season extensions, like we overviewed last week, this is the month to get them in place and get some plants growing under them. You want everything harvested by early May to make way for your summer vegetables.
If you’ve been following along, growing pepper seedlings, they may be getting to a point where they need extra care.
Depending on the size of the starting cell they are growing in, some of your seedlings might need potting up into a larger container. A good way to determine this is to see if there are many roots coming out of the bottom of the current cell. If you can pop out one of the dirt blocks from the cell, you can also see if the roots are starting to coil around the bottom. If you’re seeing this, it is time to put the plant into a larger container. None of my peppers have quite reached this size yet, though a few might in the next week or so.
Some of my peppers haven’t sprouted yet, while others are on to their second set of true leaves. Usually I am seeing this variation across pepper varieties, not within them, which is interesting, some varieties just are taking longer under my propagation conditions.
I am also keeping an eye on the peppers to make sure they are getting enough light. My lights are about three inches above the seedlings. This is currently working for them. I am not seeing them become “leggy.”
I am seeing a few yellow leaves, however. I think this is because of overwatering. This was my problem last year. It is a difficult dance finding the right amount to water seedlings. Because I am seeing yellowing leaves on a few of the plants, I am pulling back from watering, and I am leaving the heating pad under the seedling trays to help dry out the soil. I check the weight of the seedling trays (by feel) each morning, as well as feeling the top of the soil, to determine whether they are in need of water.
What to do this week:
Here’s what to do:
If you haven’t yet, make a plan to try to do some spring planting! There are so many simple strategies to try out, and it’s a fun way to start the season early. Check out last week’s post for some tips.
Keep an eye on your peppers. If they haven’t sprouted yet, hang in there! I started some in late January that haven’t sprouted yet, but I am continuing to keep their soil wet, because they will likely come around at some point.
If you haven’t yet, set some gardening intentions for the season, map out your garden beds, make plans for building up your garden spaces, and order seeds!
Next week:
Planting out a few cold hardy seedlings
Resources:
Resource 1
A great guide for potting up your peppers!
Resource 2
A great guide to some simple season extension strategies to try out!