March & April Gardener's calendar

Dear Gardeners,

Just a handy update on the year's gardening calendar, which is a free month-by-month guide of what to do each week in your own garden as well as at DIGS. You can download the whole calendar in pdf at our email group here. Just sign in to retrieve it. There is also a copy on the bulletin board at the community garden. Here is March and April:

March

1st week
- sprout seed potatoes.
- collect seaweed and add layers to compost
- set out mason bee houses.
- fertilize lawn & fruit trees and spray trees with dormant oil (if using).
- smother green cover crops completely with cardboard or newspaper and weigh the paper down against wind in garden beds you intend to plant. Do this five weeks before planting.

NOTE: newspaper's here are made with soy-based ink, and this new method is preferrable to digging in. Remember that winter rye emits a germination inhibitor for five weeks, so do so well before seeding time for a particular bed.



2nd week
- dig and divide fall flowering perennials (but not spring or summer perennials).
- plan flower seed planting for space in greenhouse and use sterile soiless mix.

3rd week
- sow tomato, herb and flower seeds indoors; keep labels well attached to plants.
- pot up seedlings as they grow in the cool greenhouse; use liquid organic fertilizer
- sow carrots and early peas in beds

4th week
- sow heat-loving vegetables such as cauliflower & peppers, (use cable under soil if in cool greenhouse) or indoor temperatures as they need 75-85 F degrees to germinate.
- continue to transplant to increasingly larger pots all seedlings from greenhouse.
- sow broccoli, summer cabbage and brussels sprouts in greenhouse in flats.
- you can direct sow outdoors corn-salad (also called mache or lamb's lettuce) radish, leeks, lettuce, spinach, peas.


April


1st week
- check your plant supports to make sure they’re strong for supporting future raspberries, roses, clematis, wisteria, runner beans, and other supported plants.
- set out newest strawberry plants (each lasts 3 years so add some new every year).
- plant early potatoes from March to May.

2nd week
- check flower tips for aphids and remove infested tips or hose down with water
- pinch back pea plant tips (you can eat the tasty pea shoots) to encourage more growth
- NEW METHOD - smother green cover crops completely with cardboard or newspaper in garden beds. Newspaper's here are made with soy-based ink, and this new method is preferrable to digging in. Remember that winter rye emits a germination inhibitor for five weeks, so do so well before seeding time for a particular bed.
- continue to use organic fertilizer or compost tea in greenhouse and for young plants in beds

3rd week
- direct seed all early greens; radish, spinach, leek, beet, corn salad, mesclun, lettuce.
- mulch garlic beds with manure mixed with compost for larger garlic bulbs
- tie up peas to support vines as they grow.
4th week
- kill slugs with beer traps (or 1 c water mixed with 1 tsp. sugar & ¼ tsp. yeast); ferrous sulphate is also a non-toxic slug killer. Lay out then flip wooden boards to remove slug eggs (which look like transparent ‘tapioca’) to reduce populations.

end March-April from "52 weeks in the garden" with added notes.

Best,
Jen