Get that garden started

Are you ready to kick ass in that garden this spring? Because it's time. Sure, it may seem cold and rainy (yay!) and hey spring's still a ways off, but I have news - spring is only 21 days away and, here in the San Francisco Bay Area, our last frost date is only three days away. 

NO, REALLY.

So, get that garden started. 

Get your garden planned, sow your seeds, source your transplants, eat your winter garden to make room for the spring garden and prep, prep, prep the soil, tools and equipment before spring is upon us and you're all, BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS WINTER NOW WHERE WILL I PUT ALL OF THESE TOMATO PLANTS?!

Don't stress though - here's a quick guide from our Test Garden to get you going... 

*Excerpt from our monthly coaching update*

1. Plan your garden 

If you know what you grew last season, then you're halfway to planning your spring garden. And if you didn't grow anything last year or you have a new growing space, the only issue will be deciding between all the different vegetables that you can grow. Which, I'll admit, can be a challenge. 

Don't get distracted! Do the needful!

Build a crop rotation plan 

Start a Garden Tracker 

Plant helpful buddies for your vegetables 

  

If you'd like some help (or a lot of help - that's good, too), book a Kitchen Garden Plan session and we'll plan your garden, give you a design to follow and build your crop rotation plan. No stressing! No worries! Just vegetables, companion plants and badassery. 

2. Start your seeds 

For forever-taking plants that don't like to be sown as seed directly in the garden like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, the time for starting your seeds indoors is dwindling fast - so get them going! 

For faster-growing plants like squash, melons and cucumbers that don't mind a direct sow situation, you have a little time before they have to go into the garden - so now's the time to get your seeds in hand and ready to roll.

For early season, direct sow plants like peas (OH SWEET LITTLE SHELLING PEAS YUM), lettuces and beets that like to do their hard work in the cool weather - now's the time to get them into the garden so that WOO you can start your harvests ASAP.

Want calendar reminders for these things so that you don't forget? Add the Indie Farms Growing Calendar to your Google Calendar view (click the +Google Calendar logo in the bottom right corner). Done and done.

The tomatoes are excited to meet you! They're social like that.

3. Source your transplants
There are lots of sources for garden-ready transplants this spring, but we're partial to the Indie Farms Spring Plant Sale because obviously.

Check out the Official 2014 Indie Farms Plant Sale line up and keep an eye on your coaching update and Facebook for your chance at an invite. We'll have vegetable and herb (culinary and medicinal) transplants and our whole line up of grow-y goodness posted up in the (hopefully bursting) Test Garden for your shopping and chattering enjoyment. Plus surprises! 

4. Close out those winter gardens
I heard something somewhere that once we get past the shortest day of the winter (it was 12/20/13), we gain a rooster's foot of light a day until BOOM it's summer and the sun's high in the sky again, feeding our plants all of the sunlight they can stand. 

Well, regardless of whether that rooster's foot thing is total BS, the rise of the sun in the sky means that it's time to bid farewell to those winter vegetables so you can make space for the spring vegetables in just no time at all.

So - savor those final broccoli sideshoots, tender winter greens, sweet carrots, wispy pungent herbs and crispy cole crops and when the plants start to look spent, withered and just plain done - pull them out, eat them or toss them (don't compost them if there are even the slightest signs of disease or pests) and get on with it, already. 

5. Prep those beds

Once your beds are cleared of winter crops, it's time to treat that soil to a good solid boost. 

Adding a good dose of Gardner & Bloome's Harvest Supreme to each of our beds is our go-to for replenishing our soil after the winter crops have had their way with it.

Once that's mixed in really well, get a soil test kit and see what's doing in that soil with our step-by-step How To for soil testing and organic amending.

Then drag out those garden structures (bean trellises, tomato cages, cucumber and melon fencing, etc) and make sure they're in good order, make sure you're stocked with good organic fertilizer like worm castings or storebought organic fertilizer and get those garden tools ready to rock.

And then you'll be ready to kick the maximum amount of ass in the spring garden. Which is what we're all after, really.