March: in the garden
maria All Articles, Outdoor Gardening gardening by the month, hoop house, March, outdoor gardening, row covers, seed starting 0
When the soil can be worked.
This is the beginning of planting. When the soil can be worked, it means it’s no longer frozen, and cold-weather plants can be seeded.
Start the season by directly sowing peas, spinach, kale, carrots, and some herbs like caraway, which can be sown as soon as the soil can be worked.
The brassicas started in the grow box can go into the hoop house, or row tunnel. Onion can be moved to a greenhouse, or planted with a floating row cover. The more cold-resistant plants such as kale and broccoli can go into the ground with a floating cover.
Transplants from the grow box to the hoop house in mid-march 2025. At right are red cabbage and cauliflower. Onions and seed starting at left. Note the black barrel containing water to create thermal mass.
During the day temperatures can become too warm and the hoop house will need venting. A manual solar-powered fan is used here, pictured in the top middle below.
A floating row cover in placed over the plants to protect during frost or temperature below freezing.
A row of broccoli is planted next to the south-facing wall of the hoop house. Broccoli is not as sensitive to frost as other brassicas, and a floating row cover may be used to prevent freezing.
The row covers are removed during the warmer hours of the day and covered at night when temperatures drop.
