March Madness in the Garden

Finally, March has arrived. I experience my own version of “March Madness” every St. Patrick’s Day, when it becomes time to start the spring garden. I almost always start my garden by St. Patty’s. Why? Mostly because I can. In my growing zone, I can start spring plants any time between now and the end of the month. The last average frost date for me is April 15th.

So what can you plant? Here is my list for spring: snap peas, spinach, onions, lettuce, turnips, and beets. In two more weeks, I’ll add some brocolli and cabbage that I have started inside. So far, the weather has been good here in the Ozarks heading into the first day of Spring. If it goes bad, I am ready.

I keep some old sheets around to through over things, should the temperature drop. I do not like to use plastic, unless I have the greenhouse up. I have been so busy this winter, I have not had time to build the greenhouse again. So, I go back to plan one. A cold frame is also perfect now. (You can refer back to my article on cold frames on my Celtic Ozark Garden page on Squidoo.)

I have my peas set to climb walls 5 ft tall, made of PVC pipe and 1″ by 2″ rectangular garden fence. Once they get going, I will help them start up the fence. The spinach and lettuce is planted inbetween the pea fences. The turnips, beets, and onions are in a different bin by themselves.

I am going to add a video on this process this weekend, so you can see what I have done.

Failte go a garden!

Ray Province
Life in the Ozarks

Ray Province is a retired minister and owner of http://ping.fm/dY1qc The website chronicles life in the Ozarks. He also freelances in SEO, website development, and social bookmarking.

March 19th, 2009 Tags: cold frame, garden, lettuce, madness, march, onions, spinach, spring

Earth Friendly Cold Frames

For two years in a row, the Ozarks has experienced a late in the season spring frost. The frost was far enough along to cause damage to crops that had been placed out in early spring, as well as some things like fruit tree blossoms. The typical advise you get on the evening news goes something like this: “better cover those plants tonight!”

What if there was an alternative? Indeed, that is the question. Earth friendly cold frames can be one such alternative. There are essentially two items needed to build a good earth friendly cold frame: an old window frame (glass intact) and some straw bales. It does not get much easier than this.

A straw based cold frame has some very distinct advantages over other options: 1) the straw is stacked end to end, and does not have to be “constructed,” 2) straw is one of nature’s best insulators, 3) it is “earth friendly’ in that is will eventually decompose, and can be added back to the soil, or into a composting bin. This also gives you the advantage of not having to store a lot of items in the off season.

Now is the time to plan for spring. A 4’ x 8’ plot will need 6 bales, plus windows to cover. Old windows can often be found in flea markets, garage sales, thrown in trash, etc. Start looking now.