Coaching for February

Your winter crops are gone by now, right? RIGHT. 

Because YAY spring is ON.

But what are you doing about it? 

Are you tending to an early spring vegetable crop, testing and amending the rest of your garden's soil for forthcoming warm season crops and gathering all of your know-how and materials to get those sun-loving vegetables planted by the end of April?

If you had to avert your eyes from that last question - we understand. Prepping your garden for the big awesome warm weather growing season can be daunting. It feels like there's so much to do and know and do some more to make sure that it's all in place to have a successful growing season.

The good news is that it doesn't have to be scary. It doesn't have to be overwhelming. It can be rewarding and delicious with just a bit of preparation and planning. 

So planning, then...

Warm Season Garden prep

Test your soil You can send your soil off to a lab to be tested or you can do it yourself at home with a kit that tests pH (soil's acidity levels), N (nitrogen), P (phosphorus) and K (potassium). While you won't get the micronutrient levels in the home test kit that you would from a lab, it will give you enough information to amend your soil's macronutrients (N, P and K are the three majors) to your specific crop's heart's desire. And isn't that what you want? Desirable crops? Knew it. Amend your soil Once you've tested your soil and found that there are a few nutrients that it needs, you can organically amend it by adding in bone meal for phosphorus,dried blood meal for nitrogen and a mix of organic materials for potassium for any deficiencies. It's also a good idea to add a layer of organic amendment (We like Gardner & Bloome's Harvest Supreme.) at a rate if about 1 2 cu ft bag per 25 sq ft. Clear weeds This is crucial. Weeds around your garden are basically just houses for pests. Aphids, white flies, slugs, snails and all kinds of nasties take up residence within chewing distance of your garden in weed stands of any size. So pull those weeds or, if you're not into hand pulling weeds, arm yourself with a scuffle hoe (also called a Hula-Ho, Flex Ho and HO knows what else. Joke. That was a joke.) and go to town on those weeds in minutes flat. Check/fix your irrigation systems Before you get all ready to plunk plants into your garden's soil, make sure that the life giving water source is working properly. Remove filters from dripline manifold heads, flush the systems, clean the filters, check emitters for clogging, clear any clogs and replace any emitters that are beyond redemption.  Once everything's working properly, set up the driplines and emitters in your garden and set your irrigation program accordingly. Then test it without any plants in the ground and on dry soil. This way you can see the wetting pattern of the driplines and make sure that they're even. Replace any lines that are beyond redemption. If you water by hand, make sure that your hose head is still in good condition, tighten connections between hose bibs and hoses and check your hose for any cracks or unmanageable kinks.  If you're handwatering by can, rinse that baby out and put it near the water source so that you'll be sure to water at the first sign of dryness. Find all your structures If you're going to use any structures in your garden; tomato cages, bean trellis, cucumber trellis, cans to prop up melons and pumpkins, re bar to stake pepper plants, etc; go find them all, clean them up and make sure they're ready to rock. Gather your seeds and plants It's spring. Do you know where your plants and seeds are? If not, now's the time to source them. For reals.  Our favorite organic seed sources are Johnny's Selected Seeds, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, LocalHarvest.org and High Mowing Seeds. Some amazing plant sales are coming to a farm, park and college near you: 3/28-5/31: Love Apple Farms' Tomato Plant Sale in Scotts Valley 4/11: Santa Clara Master Gardener's Plant Sale at San Jose's History Park 5/8-5/10: Cabrillo College's Annual Spring Plant sale at Cabrillo College's Horticulture Center & Botanic Gardens Stock up on fertilizers/compost, row covers, organic pesticides Before you get everything planned and planted and growing, stock up on the things that you'll need to keep your garden happy once it's in the ground. Bags of finished compost near the garden (or your own finished compost), row covers to put over new squash plants to keep pests away and some Safer's Soap in case pests take up residence are good things to have on hand so you're not scrambling to find it when you need it. Or, worse yet, forgoing it altogether because "Pffffffffft. Who has the time?" Yeah, we've all said it, but don't let this be you. Not this year. This year's garden is going to be magnificent. And productive.  Now, what about those cool season crops? Early Spring Greens Now: Those greens planted just a few tiny weeks ago when they were few and tiny are now, surprisingly, bushing out and making their way into the menu rotation. Next: You probably have a few weeks left before they succumb to the warm weather (anything over 70 degrees toughens them up and they start to flower). To do: Harvest and enjoy your greens at their taste and production peak! With temps consistently in the high 60s, they'll do well as long as they get consistent moisture, so check the soil to make sure it doesn't dry out.  The old school moisture test (good for heat sensitive plants with shallow root systems, like lettuce): Gently press your fingers to the soil's surface. If soil comes back on your fingers, there's plenty of moisture. If no soil comes back on your fingers, it's time to water. Peas Now: They're taking to their trellis and climbing a little bit higher every warm day.  Next: They'll keep climbing ever higher and, depending on your variety, will start setting flowers after they've grown a few feet tall. To do: With the warmer temps, it's a good idea to mulch around the base of your peas to keep the soil temperature cool. This keeps the plants happy and lets them continue with their normal pace. If they get too warm, they will go into shock and won't develop normally. Garlic Now: Ripening Next: Our warm temps are cuing the garlic to get to developing, already. So that's what they're doing. Thicker above ground growth and bigger cloves below the soil.  To do: Still, nada. When most of the lower leaves are brown and the tops are still green, we'll harvest them by lifting them out of the soil with a garden fork dug in widely around the base. Then they'll cure. THEN we'll eat them. But not yet. Be patient, you.  Herbs & Flowers Chives  As the temps warm up, the chives go into overdrive - which is great. Go grab some bunches of chives and chop them up with your early spring greens and some fresh herbs for a fancy ass salad that will impress your dinner guests or at least fancy up your own lunch.  Ever just tucked fresh chives into a quesadilla? Go on and try it and then tell me that growing chives was a waste of time. You won't be able to do it. Dill   This stuff is starting to look a little haggard, that's true. If given enough time, it will blossom with yellow blooms and attract all kinds of beneficials to your garden, like hover flies and honeybees, but if you're trying to make room for warm weather crops, it's OK to harvest this completely and make way for other stuff. If you want to leave it in to benefit your warm weather crops, it is an excellent companion for cabbage, corn, lettuces and onions. I've been better. Nasturtium It's back! Yay! It's back! Nasturtium does so much in the garden that it's a good thing that its down time is so brief in our area. It's frost tender, so it's out of the game from about December through February. But as soon as the temperatures warm up the nasturtium is the first to jump up looking for sun.  If you didn't have any nasturtium growing last year (which will mean that its seeds are 99.9% likely to have overwintered in your soil and will be germinating now, if not super soon), get a packet or two of your favorite varieties (there are tons) and drop in a few seeds where they'll be sure to get watered.  In a few weeks you'll see their little round leaves poking out of the soil and, not long after, trailing vines of dark (or variegated) green leaves and bright colorful flowers. Don't pull me out. I'm not a weed. Nasturtium serves four high-fiveable purposes in the garden: 1. It's a living mulch It grows along the soil's surface and keeps the soil cool and the weeds down. Plant some at the base of your peas and let them live all symbiotically. Optional: Sing kumbaya. 2. It's a cut flower When you have a couple dozen blossoms open, go out to the garden with a jar of water and snap off the flowers about half a foot down the main stem and arrange a beautiful bouquet. They'll last about a week and the plant will work even harder to put out even more blooms. You'll have bouquets through fall. Seriously. It's awesome. 3. It's edible Ever had a fancy salad in a restaurant that came with flowers on top? You can do this at home and save on the valet service while still feeling fancy. Just pop off a few of the blossoms, rinse them gently to remove any hitchhikers and toss them with your salad greens. They're a little peppery and add great color. Plus, imagine the fancy factor - it's a thing. 4. It protects cucurbits and fruit trees If you're growing cucumbers, melons or squash, this is your man for companion planting. It has been said that the evil cucumber beetle can't find its way to your cucurbits  with this guy vining its way all over the place and it also attracts beneficial insects to its blossoms.

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.

Save some water, already

Look, I know there's rain in the forecast for the week and that we got a day or two of rain this month, but that doesn't mean we can run around spraying it everywhere because WOO THE DROUGHT IS OVER!

It's not. Not by a long shot. 

But we still want to get those warm weather seedlings started and that takes water, so here's how we save water AND start our vegetable, herb and flower seedlings.

Keep in mind though, if I see you wasting water, I will spank your buns. Just fair warning is all.

Meanwhile, here are 10 ways to save water while growing those badass vegetable gardens this year...


*Excerpt from our coaching update*

Pre-planting 

1. Install drip irrigation
This is one of the most effective ways to conserve water AND the best way to water your vegetable plants. Here's an all-in-one kit that will drip irrigate a 75 square foot garden area. Get nuts.

2. Check all of your irrigation/fix  
Already have drip irrigation? You're awesome. Before you plant a thing, go out there and test your system (aka - turn that muther on) for leaks, clogged drip emitters, calcium encrusted manifolds (the big main head that all of your drip lines connect to) and missing bits and pieces that the naughty squirrels made off with during the winter. Then fix it and get to growing, already.

3. Build beds
Whether you construct raised garden beds from boards (just not treated railroad ties, please), concrete blocks, scrap metal or hay bales or just mound up soil a foot or two deep, raised beds help promote drainage, avoid compaction (you won't be as likely to walk on the raised part of the bed) and focus water at your plants' roots rather than indiscriminately *around* the plants.

4. Rain barrels

Have you done this? It's pretty simple to set up and can give you a reserve of water to use for hand watering during dry periods. Like, you know, now. Rain barrels come in a number of sizes, can be set up to catch water from downspouts or just as it falls from the sky. The beauty is that it doesn't *have* to fully rain for moisture to accumulate since dew and moisture accumulate on roofs overnight and will drain right into your barrels, too. 

Planting time 

5. Plant densely 
Sure, there are spacing requirements listed on your seed packets and seedling starts and such, and these are good guidelines for most situations, but when we're in a bind for water, resources and space, these requirements can be overly conservative. Instead, look for the "spread" or "width" size for the plants you're growing and plant to the edges of that area rather than including extra space. 

So, for example, tomato spacing is usually recommended at 30 inches (2 1/2 feet) between plants, but if your tomato plant's spread is 3 1/2 feet (or 1 3/4 feet on center), you can plant your tomato plants at 1 3/4' apart so that when the plants reach maturity, their leaves and branches will touch/overlap a bit and there'll hardly be a flicker of sunshine that hits that soil to dry up any moisture that exists while still allowing for enough air circulation to keep the plants happy.

  

Also, planting in squares rather than rows is a good, dense, way to get more from your space without using more water. 

6. MULCH  

I know I've gone on about mulch before, but let me reiterate for those who were checking their phones at the time (I see you out there) - Mulch. OH MULCH. 

Whether you use straw, plastic, bark, cardboard, straw, newspaper, shade at the soil level (shade is mulch!) - cover the soil around your plants to keep the moisture IN and the water-stealing weeds OUT. 

7. Cover germinating seed beds

Loosely cover germinating seeds with a floating row cover to keep the soil mo-ist enough for the seeds to germinate without risking them drying out. 

8. Start plants indoors

Some plants need a head start so that they'll be ready to take off when our weather agrees with their ideal growing conditions and, by starting these plants indoors you'll conserve water by growing them in small containers that can be watered super efficiently via capillary mats or just hyper focused hand watering. Plants to start indoors include long season vegetables like eggplant, peppers and tomatoes.

Post-planting

9. Water like a pro

Firstly - know what kind of watering condition your different vegetables like and go with that instead of blanket watering everything. Seriously. For instance, tomatoes like infrequent deep watering (think 3 days a week for 10-15 minutes) and lettuce likes consistent shallow watering (think daily or every other day for 5-10 minutes). 

If you can't provide specific watering conditions for each type of vegetable (I get it - we have automatic drip irrigation, too, and lots of different stuff planted together in the Test Garden), follow these four rules that will, generally, appeal to most of your warm weather crops:

1. Water deeply - This encourages deep root development.

2. Water infrequently -This keeps the soil from leaching nutrients below the plants' roots.

3. Water in the morning - This gives the plants a fighting chance of being able to take up the water before it evaporates in the hot sun and gives them the turgidity (upright strength) to power through the hottest parts of the day without flagging (falling the hell over).

4. Water at the roots and not on the leaves -This discourages disease and gets water to where the plant can use it.

10. Water only when the plants need it
Yes, we love our drip irrigation and automatic watering, but when it gets hot and the plants need more water, we don't want to rely on the timer to know when the plants need a drink.

Secret: Timers don't know when the soil's drying up. They only know that IT'S 5:30AM! TURN ON THE WATER!

So, yeah. Before you get all "Oh the timer's got this one." and your plants shrivel up from lack of water, do a quick check to see if they even *need* water at all. And if so, give it to them GOOD.