Our 2024 Garden is Sprouting…
This winter had me obsessively counting down the days until gardening season. I became optimistic that spring might start early after a few unseasonably warm days in late February, so I started dropping seeds right on March 1. Peas and salad greens mostly, with some early potatoes and radishes in the mix.
Our 2024 garden looks so different from last year’s! For starters, at the end of last season we ended up breaking out of our garden boxes in the back yard. Darcy also went a little nuts with the lawn-killing experiment and extended it to the front yard. In the late fall, I dug up our oversized peonies and our eclectic collection of irises, separated them and replanted them all over the front. As much as I am game to extend our edible garden to the front of our house, I NEED my flowering perennials to give a show throughout the season.
Our garden overwintered nicely and I’m hopeful that an early start means we can extend our season just a touch. Last year, we had help from our friend Dan in starting our garden, and we started a bit later in April. Looking back at photos, our garden really started showing signs of life in May, so what’s the rush? I know, it’s early… but I am still out there every Monday throwing down seed, making diagrams and taking notes, and just trying to rush nature into doing its thing. I may not be anywhere close to reaping what I sowed but I am still getting the benefits of having my hands in the soil and my face to the sun!
I’ve learned a few useful things as I’ve been setting up my spring garden:
Order baby leeks for a jump start: Last year, we grew fantastic leeks from a local nursery without much work and I marveled at how space-efficient they are, so I definitely wanted more this year. We opted to order baby leek starts from Johnny’s Seeds and they’ve taken incredibly well to the soil. Dan also gave us seed for his heirloom King Richard Leek, which germinated well indoors but they seem to be weeks/months behind the starts we bought.
Buy open-pollinated seed so you can save for next year: Dan taught us this one; he is really into saving seed that has adapted to the local environment. Open-pollinated seeds can be saved from your garden and reproduce faithful to the original for the next year, but not so much for hybrid seeds.
I’m staying away from hybrid seeds (but no shade!): Hybrid seeds have been bred to produce a certain set of features and it is tempting to grow the most beautiful, large and pest-resistant veggies… There is nothing wrong with hybrid seeds, other than they just don’t fit into my goals for my garden. I am trying to build a garden that is adapted to my environment, seeds itself and generates seed I can keep for years, and saving seed from hybrid plants isn’t conducive to that.
Etsy is a treasure trove for open-pollinated and heirloom seeds! I got catalogues for Johnny’s Seeds, Gurneys and a few other seed companies, and was disappointed by the limited selection of open-pollinated/heirloom seed. I found Sherwood Seeds and Seed Geeks on Etsy and was intrigued by their fun selection of heirloom beans, corn and tomatoes. It’s just thrilling to see seeds with a history that have been adapted to the Northeast! Not to mention, it’s just good karma to support a small business.
Just because you plant it sooner doesn’t mean it grows faster… I am learning PATIENCE. I dropped my pea seeds right on March 1 on really beautiful and rich compost. It is April 10 and they are barely 2 inches off the ground but looking at my photos from last year, the peas were just starting to take off in mid-May. We dropped some saved dill seed at the same time, and it took about 3 weeks to germinate. Our soil temperature is in the forties, even on warmer days. Seeds like a little warmth to start, so it’s just not time yet and we have to be PATIENT.
But forcing the rhubarb does work for the impatient! I learned about forced rhubarb on Instagram, where British gardeners demonstrated the technique. It was as simple as turning over a bucket to cover my rhubarb crowns. After 2 weeks, the stalks were super tall and pink as promised. I read you can’t do it too often or on young plants, otherwise you run the risk of stressing them too much… but I love to experiment in my garden!
Are you also gardening in Rhode Island or in a Zone 7 garden? Let’s connect and share some tips with me!