When To Start a Garden- NOT All at Once!

With the changes wrought by the Covid19 virus many more people are thinking about starting or getting more serious about gardening. I want to do my part by dispelling some gardening misinformation and sharing my knowledge and experience. I have been gardening since I was, as my mother used to say, "knee high to a grasshopper". There is always more to learn in this most rewarding of hobbies! Many people here in the Spokane area of the Inland Northwest say that you shouldn't plant your garden until the snow is melted off Mount Spokane. So wrong on so many levels (unless you have low lying, poor draining soil). First of all there is a essentially 5 different times that are appropriate to plant different types of seeds or starts. The earliest planting time is several weeks before the last frost (May 1-15th here in Spokane) when the ground can first be worked. Things that sprout easily are spinach, radishes, beets and lastly potatoes (because they are planted so deeply). I did all this a couple of weeks ago.

Yesterday I transplanted by broccoli starts with collars made of half of a yogurt container to block those pesky cut worms. In between I planted onion sets that I will harvest young as green onions. Broccoli (and all its relatives) make excellent companion planting with anything in the onion family. More on onions next post.

So get out there and let's get gardening!