Mid-Atlantic: March 2013

**sfg4uKim** 2/28/2013, 11:13 am

I'm putting this out a little early as tomorrow I will be setting up at the Maryland Home & Garden Show. If you're in the area, come see me at booth #1727 (near the Fan Cave). I'll be giving a SFG Seminar on Saturday the 9th at 11 AM.

Since we're speaking about garden-related shows, are there any in your area that you like to attend?

What are your plans for this month in preparation for spring?

**camprn** 2/28/2013, 11:26 am

Good luck with your show and presentations Kim!!

Mikesgardn 3/1/2013, 11:27 am

I remember you mentioned a company called Veteran Compost last year, so I ordered some bags of compost from them. I will be picking them up in Columbia tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.
This month I will be adding compost to my beds, and I will plant peas and lettuce outside. I'm also getting a new bed ready for some raspberry plants that I ordered.

Andrea13 3/1/2013, 1:12 pm

I was hoping to get my second raised bed all set up next week, but with the possibility of a major blizzard coming mid-week (PLEASE NO!!!), I think it may throw a wrench in my plans.

Would it be ok to direct sow some peas this weekend, with not really any protection? I assume several inches of snow would not be good for brand new seedlings....probably better to wait until next weekend I guess? Any suggestions?

Hopefully by mid-march I'll also have a few boxes of succession plantings of Lettuce, and maybe some broccoli transplants too Smile

**camprn** 3/1/2013, 2:27 pm

Andrea, it may be a bit to early yet to sow the peas.
http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/MD/Sykesville

Andrea13 3/1/2013, 3:31 pm

camprn wrote:Andrea, it may be a bit to early yet to sow the peas.
http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/MD/Sykesville

Interesting, thanks! I thought I saw somewhere else that our last frost date was around April 20th. I'm still very new at this and probably getting mixed up by looking at too many sources, and I think I'm figuring out that the date seems to move each year - info overload here!

Accrding to the almanac, I started my lettuce wayyyyy too early (like 2 weeks ago! - inside) - whoops Shocked

...was going to transplant outside in 2 weeks, but now that seems like a bad idea....chalk that one up to a learnng experience!

At least my broccoli is right on time, and I don't have to feel so rushed with those peas Very Happy

**camprn** 3/1/2013, 4:17 pm

Last frost dates and first frost dates are usually calculated as an average. There are no guarantees. With a few more years and some practice and taking note of your weather patterns, this gardening thing will get easier. BUT, Mother Nature has been known to throw curve balls. Hang in there! Wink

Mikesgardn 3/1/2013, 6:34 pm

Andrea,
You can view a planting calendar for Maryland at this website (scroll down to the bottom and click on publication HG-16 "Planting Dates..." It is specifically for Central Maryland.
http://growit.umd.edu/

Andrea13 3/1/2013, 7:19 pm

Wonderful, thanks Mike!!

Andrea13 3/1/2013, 8:43 pm

Ok, so I have reviewed both of the recommended sources above (thanks for these!), and I am finding discrepancies in recommended planting dates. Should I just be using these as guide, and adjusting based on weather forecast, etc?

For leaf lettuce planting dates:
UMD: March 15 - June 1 (*doesn't clarify if that's inside or out)
Almanac: (indoors) March 19 - April 2, (outside) April 23 - May 14

So accroding to UMD I can direct sow lettuce in two weeks, but the almanac is saying to wait 7 weeks before doing so? Am I reading that right?

Please set me straight, thanks a bunch!

Irish3 3/2/2013, 8:21 am

Hi Andrea... I spent a day on different websites trying to find the most accurate planting dates for my area, at the risk of giving you yet another website with different info I found this one to be most helpful.
http://veggieharvest.com/calendars/
This is what I used last year and for me, a second year square foot gardener, it just made it easy for me to go with the indoor and outdoor dates listed so I wouldn't feel stressed about the timing.
Good luck!!!
Irish3

Mikesgardn 3/2/2013, 5:44 pm

Andrea,
The planting dates from the UMD site are very reliable. They are the dates for planting seeds outside, except for the vegetables with an asterisk after their name. The ones with an asterisk are vegetables that have long growing seasons (like tomatoes) and need to be started indoors. So if you buy transplants (like tomatoes), the date shown is when you would plant them outside.

So yes, you can plant leaf lettuce outside in two weeks if the weather warms up a bit.

**sfg4uKim** 3/3/2013, 8:11 am

Mikesgardn wrote:I remember you mentioned a company called Veteran Compost last year, so I ordered some bags of compost from them. I will be picking them up in Columbia tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.
This month I will be adding compost to my beds, and I will plant peas and lettuce outside. I'm also getting a new bed ready for some raspberry plants that I ordered.

I hope this went well. Justen's a really good guy. One of my customers from last year told me how well their garden did with VC (they also got some of his compost tea bags).

Mikesgardn 3/3/2013, 8:23 pm

I picked the bags of compost up yesterday, and topped off my beds today. I liked how the bags were 20 pounds, easy to manage, and easy to open with their shoelace tie. Looks like good compost.

Dunkinjean 3/4/2013, 12:10 am

On Saturday we went to our local farm nursery to get the vermiculite, composts and peat moss for my new box 4x10 that Hubby had built earlier in the week. He did the same for my sister in-law. So on Sunday my sister-in-law and I mixed all the soils while the men stabled the weed cloth inside the box and us girls poured it into the boxes.

While the girls mixed up the soils more inside the boxes the boys made the trellis. It was great fun considering it was 38 degree and alittle windy!

I was going to plant my peas and beets and decided against it since we were going to get frost Sunday night and Monday night and possible snow on Wed. Hopefully after Wed. I will be able to make my squares with twine and plant my peas & beets. sunny

**sfg4uKim** 3/4/2013, 7:27 am

Dunkinjean wrote:On Saturday we went to our local farm nursery to get the vermiculite, composts and peat moss for my new box 4x10 that Hubby had built earlier in the week. He did the same for my sister in-law. So on Sunday my sister-in-law and I mixed all the soils while the men stabled the weed cloth inside the box and us girls poured it into the boxes.

While the girls mixed up the soils more inside the boxes the boys made the trellis. It was great fun considering it was 38 degree and alittle windy!

I was going to plant my peas and beets and decided against it since we were going to get frost Sunday night and Monday night and possible snow on Wed. Hopefully after Wed. I will be able to make my squares with twine and plant my peas & beets.

Sounds like a good day!

**sfg4uKim** 3/11/2013, 8:05 pm

The Maryland Home & Garden Show was a success. This was my first time ever having a booth at an event like this so I wasn't sure what to expect.

I sold about 10 ANSFG books, 3 of Mel's terrific cookbooks, maybe 5 bags of growing medium, a couple bags of blended compost and TONS TONS TONS of "Per Square" Seeds . . . well over 1500 packs!

LOL the guy in the booth next to me said, "Kim, what the heck are you selling over there? People are lined up three deep and waiting to talk to you." That was SOOOOOO encouraging to me. People DESPERATELY want to hear about SFG!!!!!

I've been SO busy getting ready for the show that I didn't have time to even start seeds yet. Today I cleared & topped off my raised bed (2' x 23') and the salad table and made soil blocks. I SHOULD have time to plant tomorrow.

CapeCoddess 3/11/2013, 8:11 pm

OMG! Three deep? That's fantastic! What a great service you provided, Kim. You must feel wonderful! And I LOVE that your "Per Square" seeds sold so well. Success is in the air. cheers

CC

Dunkinjean 3/11/2013, 9:13 pm

Congratulations Kim! you rock

I am so happy that you did so well at the show.

**sfg4uKim** 3/12/2013, 5:21 pm

Got some things direct seeded today (may be a little early on some of them but what the heck) - spinach, broccoli, carrots, radishes, lettuces, chard, collards, peas, snap peas and beets.

In the "greenhouse" I did some onion seeds, more lettuces and . . . well something else that I can't remember right now. Shocked

Hope to start some other stuff tomorrow.

gregrenee88 3/12/2013, 6:48 pm

Awesome to hear that everything went well for you this past weekend! rock on

I uncovered our strawberry plants yesterday and discovered worms in our other two beds, which are currently empty. Now that the weekends are decent enough to be outdoors I'm hoping to get our mushroom compost for our beds soon. I spent part of this past Sunday seeding plants in used 1 gal. milk cartons which stay out on our back porch. I hope to see something popping up soon.

Renee

Dunkinjean 3/12/2013, 8:52 pm

I forgot to plant my turnips of Sunday - I guess got a bit of dirt in the brain....lol.
I am hoping to plant my carrots, radishes, turnips, lettuces, spinach, and scalliions this coming weekend!

Mikesgardn 3/21/2013, 8:51 am

sfg4uKim wrote:Got some things direct seeded today (may be a little early on some of them but what the heck) - spinach, broccoli, carrots, radishes, lettuces, chard, collards, peas, snap peas and beets.

In the "greenhouse" I did some onion seeds, more lettuces and . . . well something else that I can't remember right now.

Hope to start some other stuff tomorrow.

Kim,
Did you have any luck with your direct seeding? It's been cold, so I've held off. Even next week looks too cold!

**sfg4uKim** 3/21/2013, 8:54 am

Mikesgardn wrote:
sfg4uKim wrote:Got some things direct seeded today (may be a little early on some of them but what the heck) - spinach, broccoli, carrots, radishes, lettuces, chard, collards, peas, snap peas and beets.

In the "greenhouse" I did some onion seeds, more lettuces and . . . well something else that I can't remember right now.

Hope to start some other stuff tomorrow.

Kim,
Did you have any luck with your direct seeding? It's been cold, so I've held off. Even next week looks too cold!

Well, it probably would have done better had I noticed that the "grow tunnel" had blown off.

Dunkinjean 3/21/2013, 11:20 am

Well I took a chance and planted carrots, turnips, lettuce, radishes, and beets on Tuesday since I will be away for almost 2 weeks visiting my sons, daughter-in-laws and grandsons. Very Happy

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