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. Read "A Comfort of Crows"
2. Duck friendly garden plans
3. March tasks
4. Plant indoors
5. Prep the beds

1. Read "A Comfort of Crows":

I'm loving this pretty book by Margaret Renkl (2023), subtitled "A Backyard Year"; it includes a reading for each week of the year; this week is Winter - Week 12, Wild Joy.

She talks about the start of March, with all of its glory of waking insects, returning birds, blooming flowers and budding trees.

"If you tell that I don't deserve this joy, you are telling me nothing I don't already know. From the very first hominid to rise up on bare feet and stumble across a field of blooming grass, we have been burning this world down. I know that. I am in love with the mild light of the coming springtime anyway, with the shivering joy of the coming springtime, with all the beguiling creatures of the coming springtime. ... It would be a crime to snuff out any flicker of happiness that somehow flames up into life. We are creatures built for joy. ... The world is burning and there its no time to put down the water buckets. For just an hour, put down the water buckets any way. ... The world is reminding us that this is what the world does best. New life. Rebirth. The greeness that rises out of the ashes."   

2. Duck friendly garden plans:

In the winter our ducks have full run of the garden paths, to allow them to feast on slugs and snails. We have short wire fencing around the beds, and our ducks don't fly into the beds, but they do reach a good 18-inches in with their agile necks. I want to make some adjustments to our garden to allow our ducks in during the summer as well.

• One plan is to section off the front beds for tender crops and let the ducks into the back edges only. 
• Another idea is to add taller boards around the beds with tender crops, to prevent reach-in.
• And I want to build a narrow frame bed-covered with heavy mesh to plant things the ducks like to eat, like comfrey and oats, so the ducks can eat the tops without digging up the roots.

3. March tasks:

I'm using the Second Breakfast Garden monthly guides this year to update my checklists, because they are in zone 8b.

1. Set up for seed starting: Get out my grow lights, clean some 6-packs, finish making potting soil, and boil some water.
2. Start some seeds indoors: Our last average hard frost is April 22, so this week I can plant anything that should be started 7-8 weeks earlier (see below).
3. Bed Prep: After a few days of dry weather I can begin to prepare my onion and spinach bed. (see below)
4. Plant outside: Spinach, onions, more peas.
5. Hardening Off: Towards the end of March, I will begin getting veggie babies ready for the rigors of life out-of-doors. 

4. Plant indoors

Peppers are one of the first things I plant indoors, because they require 8- 10 weeks indoors before setting outside in April or May. This allows the pepper plants to grow into a large bushes early in the season. With a larger plant, you’ll get more peppers.

Poblano peppers originate from the Puebla region of Mexico and are a staple in Mexican cuisine. They are large and heart-shaped, and are deep green when immature and change to a dark red or brown as they ripen. Poblanos are known for their mildly spicy and slightly sweet taste, and a subtle heat that enhances the flavor of dishes without overpowering them. Poblanos prefer warm climates with plenty of sun. They grow on bushy plants that can reach up to about three feet in height.

I forgot to order pepper seeds, so I'm conducting an experiment. I'm going to harvest some poblano seeds from a pepper I bought at an organic market - just scrape them out and plant them about ¼ inch deep, keeping the soil moist but not waterlogged.

I will also plant my favorite Buttercrunch lettuce this week, and every three weeks after this.

5. Prepare beds:
After several dry days in a row, I can begin to prepare beds, starting with a spinach bed and onion bed. (If the soil is too wet, prepping beds will be more work and will damage the soil structure.)

1. Chop and drop any leftover cover-crop and let it sit for a week or so to break down.
2. Next, remove all the leftover winterizing mulch from beds and toss it all in the compost.
3. Refill raised bed boxes if they are looking empty (organic matter decomposes, so it needs to be replaced every year in the fall or spring. Fill with a blend of sand/silt/clay and compost. If you have in-ground beds (i.e. a lot of clay), a top dressing of compost will help to dry things out and add organic matter to your soil.
4. At this time also add any organic nitrogen amendments, such as feather meal (12-0-0), or a well balanced fertilizer (4-4-4), and lightly rake into the soil. I use Down to Earth Organics because they are reasonably priced, organic, and produced locally in Eugene, Oregon.
5. Stab and wiggle with a digging fork: Spear the ground then wiggle the fork in all directions and gently lift the soil. This loosens and aerates the soil without destroying the structure, and also gently blend any new soil to avoid creating a separate soil horizon. 
6. Lightly work the top inch or so of soil with a scuffle hoe. 
7. Leave soil exposed for now. This will help the soil to warm up to at least 40 degrees for cool tolerant crops and 50+ for warm season crops, and dry out.