Cold Climate Gardening

Michelle Owens is right. As soon as spring has sprung, I’m already behind. I used to think, “Oh, there’ll be plenty of time for that later.” This kind of thinking explains why I was always planting stunted seedlings in July.

And then there’s the climate. Discerning when mud season ends and spring really begins–well, that’s not always so easily discerned. This year, I think I picked the exactly right time to rake my beds. It only took me fifteen years to figure this out. The soil has to be most of the way thawed but not yet to the point where the crocuses are blooming, otherwise the rake shreds the crocuses. I’ve decided not to worry about the advice not to rake your beds too early, because you’ll expose the tender growth to freezing. If the plants can’t take the exposure, it’s time to find new plants. It seems more important to me to uncover the vole runways as soon as possible, so that vole predators have an easier time whittling down the rodent population. And a raked bed makes the wintered-over weeds more visible. Of course, if everything was mulched as it should be, there wouldn’t be any wintered-over weeds–but the voles would be so much more comfortable. All right, I’ll confess: it wasn’t because of voles that there is no mulch on many of my beds. It’s because I just didn’t get around to it.

Of course, figuring out the best time to rake is only part of it.

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Shirley Glaudo writes:

I am working on building a homemade earth box. I would appreciate the “recipe”to fill the box.. what kind of soil, how do you determine how many plants and I hear you put fertilizer on top of the soil but what kind - 8-32-16? When and how do you water. I will appreciate all information I can obtain.

I confess I don’t have any experience with these things. I assume you’d treat them like any other container planting. Can anyone offer more specific information?

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