The Modern "Victory Garden"

March is a trying month in the gardening year.   The beginnings of the season are underway but the dangers of pushing too close to the “season extending edge” is high.   Even worse, the temptation to do so is fed by the dearth of fresh harvests offered up from a winter weary garden.   After a long dark season of living largely off of preserved and stored items and winter garden harvests composed largely of root crops - the lure of fresh spring greens is strong.                           

I use season extending tricks on both ends of the growing season, early spring and late fall, but I am most aggressive with the spring season.   An old gardening friend of mine (who had tremendous experience to back up his advice) once told me that if I did not lose at least a few plants in the spring and fall that I was not pushing the season extending process nearly hard enough.   This year I feel like I am living close to the season extending edge - but so far have not pushed beyond it.    The question then is…am I really pushing the season extension to the real limits?   

Last weekend, I posted about prepping the garden for a forecasted cold snap (a typical March occurrence).   The forecasts turned out to be quite accurate and the next day we had temperatures drop almost 20 degrees below the highs and lows we had been experiencing for the preceding many weeks.    Much of the garden was already protected but I covered up the freshly planted onions, kale, cabbages, and pac choi.   The Merlot lettuce (seeds from Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog) were also transplanted last weekend, but placed in a container that is currently residing in the unheated greenhouse.   Tonight after work, I did a quick inspection of everything to see how all of the plantings were doing.   I am pleased to report that everything is looking quite sturdy and unaffected by the colder conditions.   The spinach patch has newly emerged seedlings and they are growing and getting substantial enough that they are now clearly visible growing in the garden bed.   The kale, cabbages, and pac choi are clearly recovered from the transplanting and are looking sturdier than the day I set them out and the onion seedlings are similarly looking just fine.   The Merlot lettuces looked a little limp immediately after I transplanted them on Sunday, but they looked quite perky this evening despite the decided chill.