Planning the spring vegetable garden
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Hi, guys!
It’s still too early to take my seed-starting supplies out of storage, but it’s prime time to plan what I’ll be growing this year.
My go-to bull’s heart and Big Boy tomatoes will get prime real estate in the 2022 garden, as per ushe, as will string beans, yellow beets, Genovese basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme and chives, but I always like to add at least one new-to-me edible to the garden — for fun as well as self-education.
This year, my new addition — Spanish Roja garlic (Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon) — went into one of the raised beds in autumn. The heirloom hardneck variety promises 9-11 large, easy-to-peel cloves on each head, and I expect to harvest in mid-June. That will free up some valuable real estate for my beet seedlings, which should be ready to dig out by mid-August, just in time to add more for a pre-Thanksgiving harvest.
If you’d like to plant garlic but missed the fall-planting window, you can set them out in April or May for a July or August harvest. In case you missed it, here’s my awkward-but-successful first garlic-planting demonstration. (Be sure to give me a follow while you’re there!)
📬 Ask Jessica
Reader Elaine Winters wrote to share her 2022 seed order (tells us about yours in the comments or drop me a note.)
“From Jackson and Perkins, I ordered a Helleborus, a Delosperma ‘fire spinner’ ground cover and two different colored creeping phlox. I have been searching for a light yellow rhododendron for some time and I recently found it online from Walmart!” she said. “It was only $8.99, so I ordered it. It arrived small with one cluster of leaves and in a very small pot. I plan on keeping it in the house all winter. Should I transplant it into a larger pot? I love reading your emails. Thanks for all of the helpful information.
DEAR ELAINE: Thanks for sharing your seed order — we gardeners love to glean inspiration from others!
Your rhododendron will likely need to be re-potted before planting it outdoors in spring. Gently slip it out of its pot and check the condition of its roots. If they are loose and healthy, you can leave it be for now; if they are growing around each other in a circular pattern — or emerging from drainage holes, it’s definitely time to graduate to a larger pot.
When selecting larger containers for plants, only move up to the next size pot, which will be 2 inches larger than the one in which it’s currently growing. For your rhododendron, that means a 6-inch container. Ensure it has drainage holes in its bottom (or poke some of your own) to avoid root rot, and use a well-draining potting mix formulated for acid-loving plants.
Place it in a spot where it will receive a lot of indirect sunlight (either directly in front of a sunny window that’s covered by a sheer curtain or off to the side) and provide enough water to keep the soil slightly moist but never soggy.
Transplant it outdoors in part shade to shade in early spring, after gradually acclimating it to the outdoors for about a week (set it out in a shady spot for one hour on day 1, two hours on day 2, three hours on day 3, etc.)
💡 If you do one thing this week…
Repot indoor plants (again, move up to a container that’s only 2 inches larger than the current one) — but don’t fertilize yet.
For more great gardening tips — 365 of them! — order my Day-by-Day Gardening Calendar.
It’s like a complete gardening course in a wall calendar! By the end of the year, I promise, you’ll have earned a green thumb! Plus, your wall will be adorned with award-winning photography provided by The Weekly Dirt readers!
👏 Sunday shoutout
Chris Petersen of Northport, NY, writes: “I’ve been trimming back the coleus cuttings that I potted up in fall. They’ve been growing like gangbusters and outgrowing my plant shelves! I don’t know what I’m going to do when I need those shelves for seed starting!”
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📧 How’m I doing?
I welcome your comments and suggestions, so please send them along — as well as any topics you’d like to see covered and questions you’d like answered in the Ask Jessica section.
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