Organic Gardening Calendar
11 Weeks to frost free date in zone 6
By: Kathi
Every week up until your first frost free date, start seeds indoors according to the package directions. With cool crop vegetables like lettuce, spinach, and English peas only plant the number of plants it takes to feed you for a week or two at the most. If you have those big row covers start your seeds a couple of weeks earlier than the package says.
This week again, it’s time to mow.
Things you will need:
Lawn Mower
Where I live, the Narcissus have broken ground. And since I believe in getting as much out of a garden plot as possible (there’s that lazy streak again) I plant as many different types of plants together as possible.
For example, this week the (Liriope) monkey grass gets mowed. The timing is critical because in the monkey grass bed Narcissus, reblooming bearded iris, Asiatic Lilies, Lycoris haywardii and Lycoris radiata are all planted together. If we get a warm spell, the Narcissus will grow too tall to be mowed over without damaging them.
Let us assume you are planting a new flower bed or refurbishing an old one. You want to select plants to commingle that will give you foliage and/or flowering plants whose bloom time or peak display periods are distributed throughout the growing season. Personally I prefer beds that mix it up rather than the same plant repeated throughout the bed.
When you select which plants to put together there are several important things to consider. There is no order here. You must have all of them to select a group of plants that will succeed together.
Amount of light: Do not mix shade loving plants with sunflowers. One of them will not make it. This is almost impossible to affect, so don’t bother trying, unless you are working on a 10 year plan for shade and are planting trees.
Amount of water: Bog plants and dessert cacti don’t mix very well. You can, of course start with a dry spot and water artificially, but who needs the work? Don’t bother doing that either.
PH: Plants may like acidic soil or basic soil. If your soil is neutral, you can probably have fair success with most things. But there are those plants like blueberries that will not survive outside of a very acid soil. PH is easily and cheaply adjusted, but if you are truly lazy like me, you pretty much stick with what you got. Plants in microclimates that suit them always do better. Always.
Size: This, I think is the hardest of all the concepts to master. When you plant with proper spacing, the bed will look empty. Trust me on this; plant your bulbs, shrubs, and perennials twice as far apart as the tag tells you to. Nurseries are in business to sell product. You’ll end up digging it up. Definitely not lazy.
The second tier considerations are:
Bloom time: Select plants that will bloom at different times. I like to combine Narcissus, reblooming bearded iris, Asiatic Lilies, Lycoris haywardii and Lycoris radiata with monkey grass. (You thought I had forgotten about the Liriope- “monkey grass” didn’t you?)
What does the plant look like when it’s not at its peak? Monkey grass makes a great border along concrete sidewalks. It grows about 12 inches tall and produces a uniform manicured look. It looks good all year, but once a year it must be mowed. Mine never turns completely brown during the winter, so I leave it in place until the Narcissus first break ground. Then generally this week, I set the mower on the highest setting and mow the monkey grass. It leaves a very nice level finish and opens up the ground to sunlight to begin to warm the soil.
a. In my yard the buttercups start up by mid February and are beginning to bloom by March 1. Narcissus’ come in many varieties that bloom over a 2 month period. Plant different colors and sizes, but spread them out. Narcissus leaves turn brown and hang around for a couple of months. Do not cut off the leaves after they bloom. The leaves feed the bulbs for next year’s blooms. As I said, their leaves turn dark, - slowly. Spread the bulbs out so there won’t be big clumps of dying leaves. A scattered plume distributed about the bed looks better because the monkey grass can conceal small clumps better than big clumps. To expedite the removal of the Narcissus leaves, I take scissors and trim off ONLY that part that has died back. I admit, not the laziest thing to do, but well worth it.
b. The bearded iris bloom next in late April. Repeat bloomers will bloom again during the summer. Same deal, after they bloom cut back the bloom stalk. Later if the leaves turn brown, you can trim them, but more likely they need to be treated with beneficial nematodes for Iris Borers.
c. Then the Asiatic and Oriental Lilies start blooming in June and if you’ve selected your varieties well they will continue to bloom through July. As soon as they quit blooming I dead head them and like the buttercups, snip them back as they die down.
a. Lycoris are the best for out of bloom looks. From mid spring to August or September there are no leaves. Then overnight a bloom stalk will pop up. These absolutely look better in clumps of 5 or more. As soon as the blooms fade, cut the stalks down. In the fall when everything else is dying back, the leaves will sprout and at least here in zone 6, will stay green all winter.
All of this was to get back to mowing the monkey grass. With the proper mix, you can do very little work over the growing season, have lots of blooms coming and going, and never have to replant that area. The older it gets the better it looks. A good dose of bone meal once or twice a year will make it sing.
If you are real good you have a bagger on your mower. Free Mulch. No mess to clean up. For me, I bag my monkey grass clippings then spread them evenly out over that new bed I made last week.
Next week we will start to move the early crops out to the cold frame or row covers that we put up last month.
Next week you will need:
Soil thermometer
Broccoli slips
Onion and Chive bulbs
Organic vegetable fertilizer
Bone meal
February Week 1
January Week 4
Organic Gardening Calendar
12 weeks to frost free date in zone 6
By: Kathi
This week plant a few more seeds and clean up the flower and vegetable beds. And Bonus Time! We’re going to start a new bed. Yes now, why not?
Things you will need:
.........Gloves
.........Compost /Manure
.........Rake
.........Garden Hose
.........Lawn Mower
Again this week you should inspect you seed packets and plant the seeds using the timing methods described in the January Week 3 post. Check last weeks seeds for sprouting, and as soon as you see green, get them in front of a sunny window. Rotate the seed tray every day. More often if you can.
If the weather was too bad where you are, there’s still plenty of time to build those row covers and get that plastic on. The sooner you do it the sooner your soil will warm up to a toasty 60o. That’s the magic temperature to plant seeds or transplant slips. Buy a soil thermometer; guessing will just cause you to screw up. Been there done that.
By this time we will assume you have your compost pile set up and you are turning it as often as you feel like it. (I’m loose on rules) The more you turn it the better. I never turn my small one that’s in a plastic bin, but I get out the tractor tiller and turn my very large bed every time I use the tiller.
Get out in the yard and pull up last years annuals that are dead. Be careful…some of those little boogers will come back if you don’t have severe winters. Snip off tops of perennials that have died back. Put all that dead plant material in the pile. Always. Never waste any of it. Don’t put sticks in it that are bigger than small twigs unless they are rotten. They will take a much longer time to compost than your everyday plant scraps. Put those in their own pile, or if you have a chipper…have at it. I use my small sticks, anything 4 inches and smaller for firewood in my chimineas.
In January Week 1 we briefly talked about getting the vegetable beds ready for spring. Likewise now is a perfect time to decide where you want your next flower bed. Feel free to go ahead and make it big.
All the books will tell you to go out there with a shovel and dig the bed up to some ridiculous depth and add, add, add….Don’t do that! Good grief, why make something very easy so hard?
Get out your hose pipe (garden hose to you Yankees) and use it to lay out where the edges of your bed will be. It should form a complete loop or back up to something like a fence or a driveway for terminating the border…..
OK go get the other 75 foot hose…I’ll wait.
The trick is; the curves you put in the hose have to match the curvature of the turning radius of your lawn mower. If you can get out the lawn mower, and set it very low, mow around the perimeter. Do this mowing with the mower on the side you intend to mow later, rather than the flower bed side. Be sure there are no turns where you have to adjust the path of the mower, and that you are using the side of the mower that is closed to form the edge (not throwing grass clippings into the bed). Long smooth curves. If you do this correctly, mowing will be a snap. No weed eating the edges either….
Once your bed is laid out, do what you did to the vegetable beds in January Week 1 Spray every thing in the bed you want to get rid of with a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water. Take your sprayer and get the nozzle about 4 inches from the hose, hold it steady, and spray the hose as you walk the perimeter. This will begin the edging of the new bed.
Mulch. Compost or leaves are the best mulch if you have them now (next year you will). If not, go to the big box store and buy an equal amount of compost and manure. Get enough to put down a layer 1 inch thick. Don’t bother mixing them together. Just spread one the first half inch deep, and then spread the other. Sequence does not matter. Anything green that pops up, spray it with vinegar. Diligence. It may take several times to kill some tough weeds.
Now is the hard part. You are not going to plant this bed this spring. The earliest you can plant this bed is late fall. But it will be easier the longer you wait. This year you are going to let the bed rest. As the year progresses we will go over the individual steps you need to take to get this bed ready to plant.
The other chore you have with the new bed is to watch it carefully all year long. Notice where it is sunny and where shady. Also pay attention to when it becomes shady in which areas. What is blooming when it gets shady right here? Where does it get blasted by mid day heat? As the year progresses, you need to mark on a diary, (I use a five year diary) what particular things are blooming when in your area. As time goes on, this will be the most valuable little book you have.
With this information you can plan the planting for your bed to be suited to the micro climates within it, but most importantly, to have things coming into bloom from the earliest spring days until the first hard freeze.
So back to the catalogs. Pay attention to bloom time. They probably won’t bloom exactly at that time in your yard, but relatively speaking, you can determine bloom sequence. For new beds, concentrate on the back bone the first year. Plant those things that will grow into the largest items first.
Next Week we’ll trim the monkey grass. Continue planting with next week’s seeds, tend to the sprouts, and discuss starting an apple orchard.
Next Week; Things you will need:
Lawn Mower
January Week 3
Organic Gardening Calendar
By: Kathi
13 weeks to frost free date in zone 6
This week we will be starting seeds of cold weather crops, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage indoors.
Things you will need:
Seeds Organic fertilizer
Seed starter kits with domes
Plugs or seed starting mix
Permanent Marker Markers
If you don’t have any seeds, don’t fret. Most of the big box stores are putting out the seed starting displays. Online, there are several seed companies that I have ordered from and have been pleased with the germination rates of their seeds. Two are Park Seed Co. and Henry Fields. Generally if you want it, one or the other will have what you’re looking for. Go to these sites and see what wonderful seeds you can have that you cannot buy at Walmart.
Once you get your seeds you need to sort them. Look at the planting instructions on each and find the number of weeks to transplanting. If you put up the row covers, you should start your seeds 2-4 weeks earlier. Seeds that are cold weather crops should be started now, to transplant out under a row cover 6 weeks before the last frost. For these advanced plantings you must have your row covers up very soon to get the soil warm enough to sustain the seedlings.
Without row covers or a greenhouse, start your seeds the same number of weeks before the last frost that the package indicates it will take for the seedlings to be ready to transplant.
Why not wait until there is no frost? With annuals you loose 3-6 weeks of bloom time. With cold weather crops like we are planting this week, it means you can get the crop in the covered row and have it growing and ready to begin harvesting possibly before the last frost. Crops like all the leaf lettuces, spinach, mesclun greens, are perfect for starting early. By last frost you will be eating your first crops of the season. In addition you will continue to be able to eat those greens longer because with warmer weather the clear plastic covers can be replaced by window screen or white sheeting to help keep the heat from making them bolt.
Broccoli and cauliflower just take a long time. If you don’t start it soon, it will be too late. But there is no comparison to home grown fresh picked broccoli and what you get at the grocery.
Get the seeds together that you’re planting today, cold weather crops and annuals to get an early start. Buy one of those 78 seed trays at Lowes, Home Depot…that has the seed starting pellets and a clear dome lid. Run water slowly into the seed tray and let the pellets soak it up. Cover with dome lid. Put more water in if the pellets do not completely hydrate.
When the pellets are ready take one seed per pellet and drop it in the pellet’s center hole. I find that the tip of my potato peeler works well for this. Anything so you can grasp tiny seeds.
You will notice you have a lot more seeds than you need. The hardest thing to learn is how little to plant. Consider how much of a given vegetable you eat in a week. How many plants does it take to produce that much? That’s another in depth discussion for later, but suffice it to say I LOVE TOMATOES, but 3 plants produce more than I can eat. For my husband and me, I plant 3 broccoli and 3 cauliflower seeds every week for 4 weeks. Lettuce, 3 of each variety every week for 6-8 weeks.
Put you seeds in the pellets, label what is where with permanent markers. I found it helpful to put the plant name and the date planted. If you do not fill the tray, not to worry, just add to it next week. Once you’ve planted the seeds, place the cover on securely and place on top of your refrigerator. Peek in every other day to see if anything has sprouted. As soon as it does, move the tray to a sunny window. Fertilize with a liquid organic fertilizer – kelp is a good choice. Mix it about half as strong as the label says. Rotate the tray every day to keep the seedlings from leaning. Keep an eye on the water. Any drying out of the pellets could kill or weaken the seedlings.
Once the seedlings are a ½ tall or so, start venting the dome to allow air circulation. You want humidity, the pellets to always be moist, but not wet and not developing fungus. Damping off is where the seedling wastes away at its base and dies. This is from too much humidity. Spray your seedlings with an organic anti fungal spray. Get the spray from an organic gardening company such as Gardens Alive!. Their catalog is a great mini text book on products and their use.
Next Week well plant a few more seeds and clean up the flower beds.
Next Week; Things you will need:
Gloves
Compost Pile
January Week 2
By: Kathi
14 weeks to frost free date in zone 6
There’s not much you can do about the weather, but you can get spring started by putting row covers on your planting beds.
Things you will need:
Prepared bed
Vinegar & Water
Mulch
PVC pipe in 10’ lengths
½” wide roll Velcro tape
1-3 mil rolls of clear plastic
Weights
I have been scolded for not warning you last week of what I have planned for this week. Yes, you are right, I’m sorry.
This week’s chore is very weather dependant. In zone 6 it could be freezing or 60o like it is now. If you live farther north you want to do this when you are 12-14 weeks from your last frost date. For those of you farther South, you’re late already.
Prepared bed: If you’ve been gardening you have beds. Clean them up, turn them if possible. If the ground is wet avoid stepping on the planting areas.
If you are a virgin, and this is your first planting bed or you want to start a new one, you will need to decide where to put the bed. It should be in full sun with an available water source. The closer you can orient it North/ South the better.
For our purposes, this bed should be a straight row 36-42 inches wide by 36 inches up to 30-40 feet long. Decide how much planting area you need and mark off the plot. If you need more than one plot, place them parallel far enough apart to get a sidewalk if hard surfaced between them or wide enough to get your lawn mower between them easily. Choose the spot carefully, because you will not want to move the bed(s) later.
Once you have marked off the perimeter of the bed, take a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water and spray it on any plants growing the in planting area you do not wish to keep. This spray burns the plants leaves because it is so acidic. It does not kill the plant unless you repeat the process until the plant gives up.
After spraying, put down a layer of mulch. This could be grass clippings, spread out and fluffed into a layer about 6 inches deep. (This is best done with a springy leaf rake.)
Or the mulch could be store bought. Read the labels. Make sure what you are buying is chemical free. Mulch can be leaves, manure, or wet newspaper laid out in layers at least 1/4 inch thick. Over lap edges. Personally, I think chopped leaves are the best mulch of all, and it’s free. In any case, the darker the color, the better.
PVC Piping: To build the frame for your row covers, you will use ¾ inch diameter PVC piping bent across the planting bed at approximately 36 inches on center. Plus you will need 1 length of 1 ¼” PVC pipe if you have an in ground bed. If you have raised beds, you probably wont need the 1 ¼” piping. To determine how many 10 foot pieces you need, divide the length of your bed by 3 and add 2.If your bed is in ground take number if ¾ inch pieces you need, multiply by two, and buy that many feet of the 1 ¼ inch piping. Cut this piping into 12 inch long pieces. Hammer these 12 inch pieces into each corner of the
bed, as close to flush with the ground as possible (unless you want to remove them later, but I never do). Then hammer one in every 3 feet of length spaced evenly and directly across from each other on both sides of the bed. 
The good news is, you don’t ever have to remove the hoops. If you used the bigger PVC pieces hammered in, taking it down is very simple should you decide to. Everything is reusable.
You now have a mulched bed with a hoop frame and a tightly sealed clear plastic cover over it. You just built a greenhouse. Congratulations! The soil will warm up much sooner than it normally would, so that you can safely transplant cold weather crops when the outdoor temperature is unlikely to drop below 25o. If it does, get out the Christmas lights, (the bigger the bulbs, the better) and weave the string(s) around your plants. The plants should be OK down to 19-20o with the lights.
Now go have yourself a well earned rest, get out your seed catalogs, a hot toddy, and get that order in. The worms are now doing your work for you. They will be attracted to the warmer soil and will munch on the mulch, eliminate, and best off all they bust up the soil.
Next week we will be starting seeds indoors of cold weather crops; broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, leaf lettuce, kale, parsley, chives, and annuals; petunias.
Next Week; Things you will need:
Seeds
Organic fertilizer
Seed starter kits with domes
Plugs or seed starting mix
Permanent Marker
Markers
January Week 1
Organic Gardening Calendar
By: Kathi
What better time to start this year’s gardening than the first week of January?
If you intend to change over to organic gardening, there is no time like the present. My experience has been in the US agricultural zone 6. You should adjust the timing of these posts to your particular climate.
For our purposes, April 15th is the normal frost free date, and October 15th is the normal first frost date.
If you have never tried organic gardening, you will find it easy and immediately rewarding. You will be improving your soil and reducing the toxins in your environment, and you will not believe how much better home grown organic fruits and veggies taste than corporate grown, pesticide ridden, picked green produce.
Each week I will post a new installment on the tasks that need to be performed for a successful garden. The most important thing to get started is your bulk composting routine. If you are an urban gardener, spend the $200 to get a high quality tumbling composting unit. Gardeners Supply. has a fair selection of composters. If you can afford it and have room, get two. Or, if you can’t afford one, a large black garbage bag will do, or a 3’x3’ wired in container. If you are a rural gardener and have the space, an open pile is fine, especially if it can be accessed to be turned by tiller.
The reason for two compost bins (and two compost piles), is that when you get your first pile sufficiently large, or the tumbler full, you will need the second pile or tumbler to add new compost material to. Never throw anything in the trash that you can compost!
In the kitchen, get a bucket or a pail, or a zip lock bag. Anything you can put vegetable waste in, and seal it up. Save everything that you normally throw in the trash that is fresh, canned, or frozen produce. Never add meat/dairy products to your compost. When the kitchen bag gets full, take it out and throw the contents into the tumbler or compost pile. Tumble or stir.
In your office, shred all that wasted paper, taking off any plastic labels. Here, you can either be a purest - or like me, rationalize that any ink on the paper might not be vegetable based, but it is better to compost the paper than send it to a land fill. If you are a purest, be sure to get your paper to a recycler instead.
Continue to add all your yard waste, leaves, small twigs, grass clippings, last year’s annuals, and weeds to your compost pile. This process will be ongoing for as long as you garden. This is why you should go ahead and spring for the good quality compost tumblers. If you don’t, you will regret it, and most likely end up purchasing them in a few years anyway.
Also this week, go to Garden’s Alive. It is a mail order organic gardening company that has good products, and their catalogs are very informative. They are not the only suppliers of organic garden products, in fact big box stores like Home Depot, Walmart, and Lowes are carrying organic gardening products. Use the Garden’s Alive catalogs to educate yourself on what to look for before you buy.
Finally, if you have any fall bulbs that you haven’t planted yet, get them in the ground now, before it’s too late. They will be stunted this year, most likely, but will survive to be beautiful next year.
Until next week…
