Early March Garden

March is when the gardening season increases in intensity. I will prepare my garden beds, and plant seeds indoors and out. Right now, it's still too cold to plant outside, but I have lots of preparation work to do!

Agenda:

1. Devotions

2. Beingness 

3. Ongo journal

4. March tasks
5. Plant indoors

6. Phenology journal

1. Devotions: 

I'm reading from two lovely books: Living Earth Devotional, by Clea Dana (2013), and Earth Medicine, by Jamie Sams (1994).

Earth Medicine is about False Ownership: "The Earth Mother belongs to herself and has always reclaimed every part of her soil." Countless civilizations have fought over false ownership of verdant valleys, but ice ages have obliterated most signs of them. We can change this paradigm by showing gratitude, pledging to take care, and by respecting all living things.

2. Beingness:

For Lent I am finding creative ways to make space for Being in Nature. Today: Take a slow tour of the back garden, name the plants (and clean up the plastic bins and other debris).

3. Ongo journal:

I'm going back through this book by Catherine Madden and Jesse Weiss Chu (2022), focussing on the solo practices. I'm on week 8, and Day 5 is Asking for Help. The first two practices this week helped to build my ability to see when I'm being triggered in the heat of the moment. Sometimes the awareness is enough to help me stop and regroup, but if it's not, I can ask or help: I can say what it is I need in the moment and ask for the other person or people's grace.

This practice is to pre-write some requests that I can use in the moment for situations that often trigger me. Be sure to include what my need is and some consideration for the other person's needs: 

• A request for space when I need some self-empathy: "I'm afraid I'm going to say something I will regret, because I feel a little triggered, so I'd like to go away and clear my head. What you're saying is important to me, and I want to hear you out - I need a moment to deal with my own stuff first." 

4. Early March tasks:

In early March my priorities are to:

1. Harvest! I have a tiny bit of bok choy and kale that overwintered, and it will probably flower soon; also - the beets.
2. Start some seeds indoors: This week - lettuce!
3. Bed Prep: I'll be planting onions, beets, and spinach outdoors soon, and the beds need to be prepared.
4. Buy onions and spinach plants

6. Plant indoors:

Because my first planter box is full, I needed to move the peppers into small pots and refill the box with more potting soil, and I had to make new potting soil as well. That all went well!

Next I will start my favorite Buttercrunch lettuce, and also some mixed greens (very old seed, so it may not come up).  Lettuce is in the Compositae (Aster) Family. It has grown wild since antiquity, and the ancient Egyptians were probably the first to cultivate it. Modern lettuce has five classifications: Crisphead, butterhead, loose-leaf, cos or romaine, and celtuce or stem. Lettuce is one of the easiest vegetables to grow; the seeds are quick to germinate, and the leaves grow fast. They might be ready to set out in 4 weeks, and our soil just might be warm enough by them, and I will start new lettuce seed and every three weeks after this.

7. Phenology journal:

The headlines this month are all about the low snowpack: Oregon snowpack at lowest levels in more than a decade. The fears are for drought in the farm lands, and wildfire everywhere. "The snowpack measured at 38% and 26% of average for this time of year. One of those measurements was a record low in 36 years of record keeping. Snow drought, particularly in Cascade Range and the Blue Mountains, tied to warm temperatures."

This first week of March has been warm, as it was last year: Folks call it Fool's Spring because we often get a blast of cold, wet weather in March.

March 7, 2026, Phenology Notes:

• Rainfall so far this year: Approximately 7.85 to 9.99 inches, roughly 12% to 26% below the 30-year average for this time of year, but higher than last year.

• Birds: Heard my first robin this week! And Spotted 4purple finches in the hedge this morning.

Duck eggs! Baba laid her first egg on February 25th this year (same as last year), and Ouna laid hers on March 5th (also same as last year.

• Plants: Oregon grape is in full bloom!

• Insects: Mason bees are starting to hatch?

• Fungi