Garden bed ready for outdoor sowing Saturday, March 23, 2024 |
If indoor seed starting is not your thing, but you still want to have the variety and cost effectiveness of seeds, you can direct sow your seeds directly into the garden. Now is the time to get the cool season loving crops growing.
If you are planting in mulch, be sure to open a hole in the mulch, plant the seed to the depth on the seed packet and cover with potting soil. Mulch can form a hard crust that only the strongest seedling (like beans and squash) can break through.
I would prepare the beds first with fertilizer and mulch before starting seeds. You can do a soil test yourself or send off for one if you want to create a fertilizer specific to your needs. See this post for details The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals If this is over the top for you, just use a good organic fertilizer at the recommended rate, an inch of compost, and cover with mulch. You want to make sure your fertilizer is covered or you will lose a good portion of the nitrogen to the atmosphere. I love gardening in mulch for many reasons that you can read about here: Weed free, self fertilizing, till free garden beds
Here is what can be sown in our Zone 7a garden this month. There are so many early and late varieties available that you should consult the seed packet on the best outdoor sowing times (always listed as the weeks before your last frost date Frost date look up) as you may be able to sow the seeds even sooner outdoors than has been typical in the past.
Seeds you can sow right now outdoors
Arugula
Asparagus
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Chamomile
Chives
Collards
Cress
Fava beans
Fruit trees and bushes
Garlic
Grapes
Kale
Kohlrabi
Leek
Lettuce (sow every 2 weeks if you are a salad lover for continuous salads)
Mache (corn salad)
Mustard
Onion
Parsnips
Peas
Potatoes
Rhubarb
Shallots
Spinach (sow every 2 weeks through early May)
Turnips
It is officially spring garden season!
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