THE LAZY BERKSHIRE GARDENER: Week of March 2, 2023

We’ve had quite the weather week, or what I call “an ice adventure.” I have a dog who loves and needs to run. I’m not much of a gym enthusiast, so I walk while watching her scamper about. Last week’s ice threw her for a loop (picture all those Looney Tunes characters running in place before taking off) and also made for some interesting sculpture. Besides avoidance of work, I found another reason to let some perennial plants set seed! Branches and seed heads capture ice and snow in very artistic ways. In winter I like to slow down and see the seasonal drama up close. As the rain turns to ice, droplets freeze mid-drip on the branches. I didn’t plant these shrubs and I am not responsible for their beauty, but this lazy gardener will surely enjoy the seasonal effect!

Have your seeds arrived from the catalog companies yet? Hope you haven’t bought more than you can handle. Also, did you collect more seeds last year than you can use? Check with your gardening friends or your local library about doing a seed exchange. The Pittsfield Athenaeum has a seed library! Patrons with a library card can stop by the Reference Desk, sign up, and walk home with up to ten packs of seeds for vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Saved seeds can be ‘returned’ in the fall, or if folks have other unused seed packets, these can be donated. To learn more, just email info@pittsfieldlibrary.org.  If your town doesn’t have this, why not start it?

Whether you start seeds indoors or directly in the garden later on, it’s a good idea to get them early, before your favorites sell out.  Choose your seeds like you would your houseplants. Do you have enough direct sunlight (6-10 hours) in your growing location for tomatoes? If not, maybe just one plant of patio-bound tomatoes suitable for a 5-gallon container would be a better plan. Garden centers and farmers’ markets will have tomato plants ready to go in May, including some specialty varieties. Plus, you can move that container to a sunny location where it is too hard to dig – like the middle of your front sidewalk or on your sundeck. Small pepper plants, bush beans, and some small summer squashes can be grown in large containers as well.

I sort through my seed collection and put the packets in rough groups organized by when and where I intend to plant them. Once I’ve grouped them, I don’t have to dig through every packet; I’ll just take the early March group to start indoors, and I can review the specific depth and heat needs for them. For crops that thrive in cool weather, start them inside now and set them out in your garden in April for early harvest before the high heat of summer arrives. Examples include: kale, lettuces, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. These can be sown in the garden again in August for a November harvest! How cool is that? Literally!

Seed packets will indicate when to start planting indoors, based on your average last spring frost date. For example, tomato packs usually recommend 6-8 weeks before last spring frost. Knowing how to count backwards helps when starting seeds. Our average last spring frost date at my house is around May 20, but that is only the average. Could be May 27 or May 13! Anyway, I’m not going to set out tomatoes in the garden until June because I want the soil to be nice and warm. So, for tomatoes, I’ll start no earlier than 6 weeks because indoors they can get leggy, and outdoors they will be too cold. I also go with a later frost date and would count back from May 27. That puts the tomato start date at April 15. Onion, leek and shallot seeds should have been started indoors two weeks ago. Oops. I’m not that organized. Thankfully, you can purchase onion or shallot “sets”—which are small 3/4” diameter ‘bulblets’ ready to be planted. Also, leeks will be available as starters in six-packs. All are generally available by mid- to late April.

Lettuce seed can be planted directly in the garden in early May, too. I buy mixed lettuce seed and multiple packs because we eat a green salad every day. You can even plant a little lettuce seed between other crops—it doesn’t take too much in nutrients—and when other crops are done, the lettuce just keeps growing. Another thought on lettuce seed:  plant now in a container and keep by a bright southern window. You’ll be able to eat it in a month. Use seed starting mix in a small container that will drain (no puddles please) and water from below.  What works well is to have a two-part system—one container with holes inside and one without. Add water to the outer container in small amounts and the inner container’s soil will draw the water through the holes in the bottom. Soil will be evenly moist, and you won’t wash the tiny seeds into the corners.

Watching the snow this past week, I don’t think I’ll be able to plant peas on March 17, as the garden lore suggests. To plant, garden soil needs to be “workable” – not frozen and not soggy mud but moist and easy to break apart with your fingers. Peas sprout in cold soil and will grow best in cooler temperatures, but if too wet, they will rot. If you want to get kids into gardening, grow sugar snap peas. The seed is big enough for little fingers to hold and easy to push into the soil. They sprout in about 10 days.  And although you don’t have peas to eat right away, you can notice the changes as the vines grow and start to twine about a trellis, the flowers form, and the pollinators arrive. Once the pods are the length of a child’s index finger, they are ready to pick. Avoid spraying them (you shouldn’t have to) and the pods will be ready for those little gardeners to snack on right off the vine. Easiest green vegetable to get into little tummies in my experience!

And not all seed-starting is about vegetable gardens. I mentioned last week that native perennial flowers can be planted in mini- flower nurseries made from plastic 1-gallon jugs outside in a sunny spot right now—or maybe if you clear some snow first. I start annual cosmos and zinnia seeds indoors, in mid-April too, because I like to plant them everywhere. One packet will sow a flat of 48 plants! Very economical.

Don’t just take my word for it! Classes and opportunities to learn from other gardeners add to the fun and you might make a new friend! The Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association is hosting multiple symposia where you can learn and mingle.  Event dates are Saturday March 25, 2023 in Lenox, Saturday April 1 in South Deerfield, and Saturday May 6 in Westfield. Full details and registration can be found at https://wmmga.org.

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