March in the Garden

Leaf lettuce

This is a photo of the leaf lettuce I planted in my little plastic green-house back in December.  It's taken it a lot longer than a late spring planting outside normally would to get rolling, but now I've got plenty of fresh mixed greens for myself and my bunnies.

Wall of water frost protectors

Two weeks ago I planted out six little tomato seedlings.  Even though it was over a month early to normally plant tomatoes, before the last average frost date here, I don't lose these early plantings because I use frost-protective wall of water plant protectors.  I bought my first package of them about five years ago, and re-use them every year.  So far only one has sprung a leak.  Using these, I get an early start on tomatoes, and have ripe tomatoes a month earlier than other gardeners in the neighborhood.

Tomato plant inside wall-of-water

A few days after putting out the seedlings, we had that last snowstorm.  Not one of the seedlings died; they all are tucked snug and happy in their protective covers.

Milk jug mini-greenhouses for winter sowing

Last month I wrote about trying winter sowing using plastic milk jugs. A few weeks ago the first few seedlings were emerging.  I've checked since the snow storm, and all of the seedlings are doing just fine.  The milk jugs seem to provide enough protection from the weather.  It's going to be really interesting to see how many of the seeds I planted will produce thriving garden plants from this experiment.