Spring Gardeners’ Newsletter
April is a great time to start seeds indoors and get a jump on the gardening season. For some of us it’s round 2 or 3 of seed starting indoors. We are about 5-6 weeks out from the last frost in our growing zone. Starting seeds indoors can be a great way to extend the gardening season by giving your plants a head start. For Fall Garden plans, you may want to consider extending your waves of indoor seed starting into May and June. In so doing, you can shelter cold-loving long day-to-maturity crops from the high temps we’ve already gotten a taste of.
10 Garden Preparation Tips
With spring rapidly approaching, we would like to share 10 tips to prepare and maximize all gardens throughout the valley.
Our growing season varies from year to year, but May 10th to October 10th are usually considered as the average dates of first and last frost. The valley is in different USDA growing zones, generally 7 in the low-lying areas, 6 in the foothills. These zones refer only to the lowest expected temperature in winter, zone 7 meaning to 0 degrees, zone 6 to minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s quite possible to grow plants rated to higher zones than zones 7, if you find a place in your yard that is sheltered from frost and wind.
2024 Community Gardens Check In
This year I have been conducting a deeper check-in than we have in the past, in part to develop a deeper understanding of where the community gardens that became a part of our network in 2020-2022 are at.
In the community gardens I’ve been able to connect with so far, the findings have included the reality that we have some gardens that are still going strong, and at least 3 that have not continued for the past 1-2 seasons, in some cases due to not having a garden manager, or, enough interested gardeners in the community to utilize the space the landowner made available for this.
I believe there is a practical solution to address this.