Ready, Set, Grow! Welcoming Spring in the Garden

Happy Spring! Recently a friend of mine mentioned that she’s on the lookout for anything green in her garden. Each green shoot is a celebration! I spend the winter months waiting patiently, or not so patiently, for the long awaited emergence of my plant friends’ return. And I plan! The seed catalogs arrive and I dive in, cup of tea in hand. What’s new? Too many seeds come in the mail as resistance is futile.

Learning what to plant in the vegetable garden takes some practice. Here’s a few questions to guide an eager planter: What do you like to eat? Do you want enough to eat through the winter by storing or preserving? How much time can you spend in your garden? How much space do you have? Starting small and expanding year by year is a great strategy for success.

Some vegetables do best when planted directly by seed into the garden. Just a few days ago, I planted lettuce, spinach and peas. I’ll continue to plant lettuce and spinach seeds in short rows every 2 weeks until the heat of summer arrives. Onions and leeks can be planted by bulbs or small plants in the spring. They like the cool soil.

Tomatoes, peppers, and many other vegetables do best when started inside and transplanted out as small plants after all chance of frost is past. This jump start allows the plants to produce crops in our short garden season. The Growing Collective is a local volunteer group that grows vegetable starts from seeds including heirloom, organic and unusual selections of tomatoes, peppers, herbs, winter and summer squash, edible flowers, native plants and more. Every year, they hold a plant sale in the Farmshed Greenhouse at 1220 Briggs Court in Stevens Point. This year’s sale days and hours are:

Saturday, May 17th 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday, May 18th 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Monday, May 19th 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Tuesday, May 20th 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Wednesday, May 21st 12 p.m. - 7p.m.
Thursday, May 22nd, 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.

This year, the Growing Collective is offering an early sale for cold hardy plants such as kale, chard, arugula, lettuce, spinach, onion and leeks on Saturday, May 3rd, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. The sale will also take place in the Farmshed Greenhouse.

Happy planting, gardening friends! See you here next month.