An example: way back when I first started looking at seed catalogs because they started coming in the mail (this was like October) I stumbled across this nice online planning calendar calculator where you plug in your last frost date and then it calculates for you when to start/plant various things. I thought this was super cool, and I filled it in and printed it out and stuck it on my wall. I entered a last frost date of May 15th as per various and sundry resources I found on the web. According to this planner, beginning of March is the time to start onions, cole crops and eggplants, and tomatoes and peppers shouldn't be started until mid April.
Then I come across this very interesting and informative site which basically tells me I've already missed the boat on my onions and in fact should have started them in JANUARY!
And, I've seen lots of people starting their tomatoes now. And, people are planting peas already! These are all people in my area. They are all doing different things which are contrary to the things I've read.
And you know what? That's fine.
The best way to learn is to try and the best way to improve is to try something different. If we all always waited until April to start the tomatoes, we might never know that they'll do fine going out a couple weeks earlier. If I was to throw in the towel on my onions now and go buy sets, I might never know if there is such a thing as later season onions. Maybe they'll be small, but I'm willing to give them a shot.
Some other things I've done WRONG: buried a bunch of parts cut out of sprouting potatoes from the cabinet in the middle of the garden bed, after reading a very quick Martha Stewart instructable about potato planting. I did not have high hopes, but despite the fact that I didn't do a great job of hilling up the dirt, and the sprouts were just pieces cut from taters that I otherwise used.....POTATOES HAPPENED. In abundance. Probably not the abundance that they would have had I used proper seed potatoes and hilled up the dirt correctly, but they happened. Same with corn: I planted only five corn plants, which every reference will tell you is not enough. Somehow all five of them managed to produce one cute little tasty ear. This year I plan to do better by my corn, and squash, and beans, by following a three sisters garden plan for them.
I had a bunch of failures last year too: strawberries(killed them in strawberry pots---this year I'm putting in a proper bed), root crops in general(soil too compacted--this year I am adding sand and trying to dig LESS as one of the workshops I went to at PASA suggested that double digging actually causes the soil to compact and stunt the roots!)kohlrabis I started way too late, pumpkins I totally forgot about, salad greens decimated by groundhogs, and everybody's favorite late season tomato blight.
BUT, each one of the failures taught me something important, and made me more dedicated to my garden. I don't think anything brings out my inner new age flake more powerfully than gardening. For me it's all about honoring the earth and honoring our ancestors and preserving biodiversity and improving the foodshed, and respecting the hell out of the tiny life that is in every plant. Even the damn weeds.
So here we are at the middle of March.
It's like being a painter with a blank canvas. I've got so many plans and schemes. I've got to figure out a way to trellis 14 different kinds of beans. Today when I was walking home past the church on the corner, I actually contemplated for a second how hard it would be to rip out a section of the cast iron fence. Really, they're not using it, and it would be perfect. About six months ago there were several sections of cast iron fence sitting outside of Construction Junction, getting cheaper and cheaper until someone with more forethought snapped them up. Oh well, I'll wait my turn. I've got to start gathering tires for potatoes! I've got to get some strawberry crowns, and some dirt! If I let it, gardening could take up every single waking moment of my day. I am starting to feel like I am becoming what I wanted to be when I grew up.
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