...It's time to start planting.

 

“If spring came but once a century instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change.”                                                                                                                                                                                     Henry W. Longfellow

Hello Fellow Gardeners,

Spring is silently bursting forth once again.  Let's take the time to enjoy the miraculous change. Hopefully you've had some time to get your garden ready to plant. If you haven't already started planting, remove rocks and large twigs from the garden and give the soil a good raking first. Here are the things that you can safely plant now:

Peas – St. Patrick's Day is the traditional date to plant peas and potatoes in Western Pennsylvania. but since we had such a cold wet winter, I gave the soil a little extra time to dry out a bit. Peas that get plenty of sun will be sweeter than those grown in part shade.. If you're following the square foot garden method, you should have sixteen 1'x1' squares. Plant two rows of four peas in one square. If you're planting in rows, the peas can be planted close together, like two inches apart or even less. Make two rows of peas about six to eight inches apart. Leave 12 inches between double rows. Peas grow on vines and will need some type of support as they grow - one trellis between the double rows will suffice.

Onions – onion sets can be planted now in zones 5 and higher. Plant them one inch below the soil and give them enough room to grow into a nice sized onion. In a square foot garden, depending on the type of onion you can plant 9-16 to a square. Like other root vegetables, onions don't like competition, so keep the onion beds as free of weeds as you can.

Potatoes need room so they are not a good crop for square foot gardens. If you want to grow potatoes find a larger space for them. My potato bed is 8' x 4'. The nurseries should have seed potatoes now. Seed potatoes will be free of any potato diseases. Pick the ones with plenty of “eyes.” Cut them into pieces that have at least one or two eyes. Dig ditches 7-8 inches deep, creating mounds of soil between the ditches. Place the potato pieces at least six inches apart in the ditches, with the cut side down. Cover them with a few inches of soil but do not fill the ditches. When the potatoes sprout leaves, cover the leaves with the soil from the mounds. When the leaves emerge again hill up the soil around the plants. Do this twice and then let them grow.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me at roseannlord7@gmail.com.

Reflection: What could be sweeter than the fragrance of the spring air? Those of you who live or work in the DC area have the wonderful benefit of the cherry blossoms which should be at the height of their season about now. Our gardens, in addition to providing us with the best possible food, help to purify the air and reduce our carbon footprint.

...that spring cannot be far off.

 

Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature's rebirth?
                                                                                                              Edward Giobbi

Hello Fellow Gardeners,

In just a few days it will officially be spring.. As the days get longer and warmer and sunnier our seedlings will be growing and looking stronger, getting ready to be planted in the soil.

I was turning the soil in some of my garden lbeds ast weekend and added the compost that I started last spring. It was so black and rich and well - beautiful. So I want to say a few words about composting this week. Although this is not the most popular time of year to start a compost pile, you can really start one at any time. The only difference is in the materials available. Since dry leaves are an ideal base for a compost pile and we often have an over-abundance of them, fall is the favorite time to start composting. But shredded paper can be substituted for dry leaves and is just as effective. If you have access to a paper shredder (or even if you don't; kids make great paper shredders) it's a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and nourish your garden at the same time. You can use untreated newspaper, paper towels, napkins, unsolicited “junk” mail, paper plates and all that used paper that piles up next to the printer. The smaller the pieces the faster it will decompose. Compost is one of the most important elements of this gardening process and we will re-visit the subject later in the year, but here are some basics.

Compost is a natural way of building soil, the same way that soil is made in the forest. Trees drop their leaves, plants grow and die and it all goes back into the soil.

It’s much better than commercial fertilizer. If you make it right it will have everything the plants need and It doesn’t cost a cent.

What Does it Do?
Compost improves the soil texture.
It lets more air into the soil.
It increases the soil’s water holding capacity.
It puts nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus into the soil, three ingredients that the plants need to grow well.

Hastening the Compost Process

Making the compost rapidly creates heat which will destroy plant diseases and weed seeds in the pile. Big leaves should be torn up so they will break down faster.

Egg shells are a wonderful addition, but decompose slowly, so they should be crushed. All additions to the compost pile will decompose more quickly if they are chopped up before adding.

Almost any organic material is suitable for a compost pile. What does organic mean? Natural. The pile needs a good mixture of carbon-rich materials, or "browns," and nitrogen-rich materials, or "greens." Among the brown materials are dried leaves, straw, shredded paper and wood chips. Nitrogen materials are fresh or green, such as grass clippings and kitchen scraps.

Brown = dry, high in carbon
 Green = moist, high in nitrogen

Mixing certain types of materials or changing the proportions can make a difference in the rate of decomposition. Achieving the best mix is more an art gained through experience than an exact science. The ideal ratio of brown to green is anywhere from 5:1 to 30:1, depending on which expert gardener you consult. At any rate, you should have a much greater volume of brown material than green.

To collect your kitchen waste keep a small compost pail with a lid on it in the cooking area. When you add kitchen scraps to the compost pile, cover it with several inches of brown material. Dead plants and flowers can go in the pile but avoid weeds that have gone to seed or have big roots. You can use wood ashes but not too much. You can use manure from ducks, sheep, pigs, goats, horses and cows (animals that eat only plant food) but you should let it sit a while before adding it to the pile as “fresh” manure can overheat the compost pile. Hay or straw is a good addition, especially if there are not a lot of leaves around.

Other good materials:
Newspaper, but not colored
Wood shavings from untreated wood
Coffee grounds and filters
tea bags
Hair
Feathers

What you should not use:
Manure from dogs or cats
Ashes from coal or charcoal 
Meat or fish including bones, grease, skins, etc.
Milk or milk products

 

Reflection: It's been a long and, in many ways, challenging winter. As this quote from the Essene Gospel of Peace suggests, now it is time to celebrate along with the earth.

As the earth bringeth forth her bud,

And as the garden causeth its seeds to spring forth,

So the Heavenly Father will cause the Holy Law

To spring forth with gladness and joy

Before all the Children of Light.

In the Garden of the Brotherhood,

All the earth shines with holiness and abundant joy,

For there are the seeds of the Holy Law sown.

The Law is the best of all good

For the Children of Light:

It giveth unto them brightness and glory,

Health and strength of the body,

Long life in communion with the Angels,

And eternal and unending joy.

...you never know what might happen when you hand a child a shovel and invite him into the garden.

 

Why try to explain miracles to kids when you can just have them plant a garden?    Robert Brault

When my grandson, Sean, was three years old he was helping me in the garden when we unearthed one of those tiny plastic soldiers that boys used to buy by the bagful. It wasn't the first nor the last time that I dug up one of these wounded plastic warriors, caked with dirt and invariably missing an arm or a leg.

“What is it?” Sean asked.

“It's a toy soldier from when your dad and uncles used to play war on this hill.”

“What is war?” he asked.

I put down my trowel and attempted to answer that question in a way that a three-year-old would understand.

“War is when two groups of people fight with each other,” was the simplest answer I could come up with.  But he wanted to know more, and I found myself trying to describe war in an honest, but not too graphic, way to this innocent child.

“Why do people have wars?” was his next question.

This one was even harder.

“I guess it's because they're afraid that they won't have enough,” I answered.

“Enough of what?” he asked.

“Enough of the things they need and want.”

“You mean like food?”

“Yes, food and other things.”

Sean thought about this for a while. Then a big smile filled his face.
“Oh, but Grandma,” he said. “They don't have to have a war. Everybody can just make a garden.

That seems like a very simplistic and childish solution to a very complex problem. But Sean's answer to the problem of war is not so far-fetched. If everyone's needs were met and we could do away with greed, why would anyone want to go to war?

Children love to dig in the dirt, which makes it very easy to get them interested in gardening. And they love to watch things grow, to see the tiny seeds they plant in a cup, or in the ground, sprout and grow into a beautiful tomato plant, a head of lettuce or a vine full of beans. In all the places that I've had the opportunity to make gardens with kids, they've been incredibly enthusiastic learners. In addition to my grandchildren, I've gardened with school children in Washington DC and Pittsburgh, with orphans in Venezuela and kids in Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It's always been a joy to witness and become drawn into their exuberance.

Children all over the world have a steady diet of violence. It's on TV and in the movies, in the news, in toys and video games and even in the schools. In some parts of the world children are living with the horror of war and famine. Sadly, anywhere in the world, violence can be right in their own homes. Although the subject of violence is not often discussed with children until some horrific event occurs, there is all too much evidence of how it's affecting them – anxiety and despair, bullying, school shootings, and a rising rate of suicide in children as young as ten years old.

No one can stop war or violence just by making a garden, but the fruits we will harvest by gardening with children are rich and varied. Gardening gets them off the screens, out of the house and into the fresh air. They will learn about and come to respect the Earth, our common home. They will come to realize that the Earth offers an abundance of the things we really need. The garden can be a means of teaching them that people are the same all over the world and have the same basic needs. It can be used to teach them about nutrition and maintaining a strong, healthy body. Gardening will foster the virtue of patience and, when done with a group of kids, will teach them about mutual respect and cooperation.

Schools all over the country and the world are discovering that gardening with kids is one way of helping to foster a more peaceful and equitable world. As Dr. Jane Goodall, famous for her work with chimpanzees, became aware of the scope of the environmental crisis, the focus of her work broadened. In 1991 the Jane Goodall Institute initiated the Roots & Shoots program. Young people from kindergarten through college age are involved in projects for the betterment of the community, the preservation of the environment and the welfare of animals. The program started when a group of teenagers met with Dr. Goodall on her back porch in Tanzania, There are now 10,000 groups in 100 countries. Want to know more? https://www.rootsandshoots.org/for-youth/