The traditional day to plant peas and other cool-season vegetables in Front Range gardens is St. Patrick’s Day. So if, like me, you haven’t started your cool-season vegetable garden yet, you’re already a week overdue.
You do have to wait until your soil is completely thawed before sowing seeds, but that’s the only good excuse for hitting the snooze button again. Ideally, you cleaned out the vegetable plot last fall, then tilled in some manure and left the soil in large chunks to mellow over the winter. In March, gardeners this well-organized (P. Allen Smith apostles) need only mix in a bit of compost, rake the surface smooth and they’re good to go.
No one has ever accused me of being organized. Motivated by seed displays that sprang up all over town a couple of weeks ago, I surveyed the sorry state of my vegetable garden. This is one case where retailers aren’t jumping the gun. (Ever try to buy a snowsuit in March?) When the seed displays appear, it really is time to get planting.
But before proceeding, you must tend to the soil. Mine hasn’t been touched since last March. First, I have to clean off all of the debris — leaves, sticks, dead vegetables, pots and labels, plus a life-sized painted tin chicken — that have accumulated over the winter. Vegetables require soil that is humus-rich and crumbly, the kind referred to as “chocolate cake” soil — the stuff that nature does not serve up in our semiarid, high plains environment.
Soils and ingredients to fix our soils can vary widely, but the recipe is the same regardless. Your existing soil, whether clay, sand or silt, is just one component of the batter, the source of minerals and soil fauna, both macro (earthworms) and micro (micorrhizae, bacteria, etc.). What all Front Range soils lack are nutrients and organic matter. Adding these is not a one-time proposition. Generally after a year, most of the amendments are used up.
You can use the no-dig method by applying fresh material to the surface and not mixing it into the soil. But I still prefer the old-fashioned tossed-salad style. My favorite soil amendment for adding nutrients is composted sheep’s manure (any manure will do in a pinch) and organic lawn fertilizer. For humus, I add homemade compost (commercial compost works too) and/or leftover potting soil saved from last fall. After spreading several inches of each, I mix these into the soil as deeply as possible.
Next I rake the surface smooth and sow cool-season crops like peas, lettuce, kale, beets and chard; water everything thoroughly with a sprinkler; and cover the beds with lightweight horticultural fabric. Until the seeds germinate, I water every day (if it doesn’t rain or snow) with a watering can just to keep the surface moist.
Weather depending, in a month or two I’ll be harvesting fresh vegetables. With only a few hours of work this weekend, you could be too.
Marcia Tatroe’s most recent book is “Cutting Edge Gardening in the Intermountain West, ($29.95, Johnson Books). E-mail her at mtatroe@q.com.
