March in the Garden
Pepper seedling emerging in a soil block. Photo by Tenley Nelson
March 30, 2023
Tenley Nelson - Featured Columnist
The sun rose on the vernal equinox on Monday the 20th and dawned over a perfectly classic March day, a chilly 0° at 8 am. The day before, as I made my way home from Anchorage in the afternoon, it was nearly 40° for most of the drive. This daily freeze and thaw alters the texture of our snowpack. A nice hard crust you can walk on forms overnight but the snow quickly softens by afternoon for thigh-deep post-holing. Spring is finally here in the north country.
After last year’s gloomy and rainy end of summer months and then winter’s normal moody weather, the past few weeks of sunshine have been a balm to the soul. Our roofs are melting. Snow levels are compressing. Sunglasses are a must when outside! No longer is our little generator humming away to charge our batteries, but instead, we are flooded with so much sunlight on our panels that we can be generous with our power use.
After a long weekend of museums, friends, and live music in the city during spring break with the kids, I am refocusing now on gardening chores. Time to get my head in the game and prioritize what needs to be done as we transition from winter to spring.
The greenhouse desperately needs plastic repair, but that will have to wait until it is somewhat warmer. The garden shed conex needs to be tidied up one more time before the season really takes off. And it is time to start removing snow from where the early greens will be planted so I can get some plastic up and start warming the ground as soon as possible.
I only have four 1020 trays of starts in the window as I like to seed most of my transplants later when the trays can spend time out in the greenhouse every day, so the plants do not get leggy from lack of enough light. I picked up another remote thermometer when I was in town so I can monitor the temperature fluctuations in the greenhouse and see when I can get these young plants more sun during the warm part of the day.
Every spring I think I should purchase some grow lights to help the early trays along as it seems like we have enough solar power to run them for a few hours, but it has not happened yet.
Scallions, celery, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and greenhouse tomatoes are all up, and the (slow and aggravating) peppers are
just popping through right when I was thinking I might need to start a new batch. My seedlings look a little stressed, especially as I was not here for 4 days to monitor them and keep them in the brightest sunlight. I have the covers off now that I can watch for the cats and a little fan gently blowing over them.
A slightly rough start is not unusual in my house. We do what we can, and most will grow and toughen up and will produce well even without the most perfect of beginnings.
The hardest part of this time of year is remembering to be patient. There are things emerging from the melting snow that need attending but are not yet possible to do. From my perch on the packed snow machine trail, I can see that the heavy snows have damaged several areas of my garden fence. Ditto for the raspberry canes that need thinning but are still under three feet of snow. I am impatient to get my hands in the soil, but there is over a month to go.
Snowy March garden. Photo by Tenley Nelson
As March winds down, I will start a few more trays of plants, work on the greenhouse on sunny and warm days, finish up some woodworking projects that I will not have time for once April rolls around, and chain myself to my desk to finish up some garden planning that has been neglected.
I have been diving deeply into learning about several (new to me) farm-generated fertility techniques this winter, specifically Korean Natural Farming. I have plans to engage in a few soil health projects this year. I need to make sure I have all my ducks in a row with equipment and timing now so that it happens during the busy season when I am crazy busy.
Making liquid calcium extraction with vinegar and eggshells. Photo by Tenley Nelson
Already I have started caribou bone, Prince William Sound Simpson Bay oyster shell, and eggshell mineral extractions to add to the soil. But what I am really excited about is continuing to boost my soil health through harvesting and multiplying indigenous microorganisms from our boreal forest (more on this later this summer). Good soil health and a diverse population of soil organisms is the key to a resilient and strong garden that does not need expensive and imported garden store products.
Happy spring everyone, and hooray for the start of the gardening season!
Caribou bone vinegar mineral extraction. Photo by Tenley Nelson
Note: Tenley used The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments: Using Locally Sourced Materials to Make Mineral and Biological Extracts and Ferments by Nigel Palmer to make her oyster shell extract.
