CKE Community Garden
April can be a tough month for gardeners. Some years the ground thaws and warms up, tempting us to work the soil and get cold hardy seeds in the ground. Other years spring seems to be slow to arrive, forcing gardeners to play the waiting game.
Regardless, there are ways to jump start the season and exercise your green thumb. The most obvious is to start things indoors. Warm season crops like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and squash need a long growing season and are best planted outside as transplants. Crops like cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli can be direct seeded into the garden after the last risk of frost has passed but starting them indoors gives them a beneficial head start. Be sure to use a soil mix specific to seed starting and fertilize only after several leaves can be seen on the plants. Grow lights can be beneficial, but sunny windowsills can work as well.
Many other crops are available as seedlings – lettuce, peas, spinach, and more. Generally, crops like lettuce, peas, spinach, and chard are easy to grow by direct seeding into the ground and can handle cooler temperatures, but here is nothing stopping you from starting these indoors as well. This can allow for a staggered harvest by having plants of different ages.
Cold frames can be a great way to deal with overcrowding if you are starting a lot of seed inside. Typically, these are frames that are open on the bottom with a glass or plastic lid. They can be portable enough to move into the garden to protect early plantings or kept close to the house for easy monitoring. In a sunny spot they can raise the ambient temperature by five to ten degrees. On warmer days they can be opened up, then closed again at night. Cloches are glass or plastic domes that perform the same purpose but are designed to protect an individual plant.
Winter sowing is another great technique for starting the growing season early. Using plastic milk jugs, remove the lid, then poke holes in the bottom then cut it in half to create a planting container and a cover. Sow cold hardy seeds in February or March and place outside with the lids off. The milk jugs act as a mini greenhouse which can be moved around as needed.
If any of these techniques have got you interested, take the time to do some research – there is a lot of information out there on cold frames, cloches, and winter sowing.
The CKE Garden will get going with spring cleanup in April, and we have plots available in the garden! Contact [email protected] if you are interested.
Our first event is a cooking demonstration focused on one of the most prolific crops found in most gardens. Zucchini! Save the date for June 6 and stay tuned for more details.
Happy gardening!
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