Depending on where you are and what the weather brings, March can be winter or spring for you. But I have two suggestions for any gardener, anywhere.

Don't feel pressured. There's a lot of hype around early planting, and we all want to get out into the garden. In my experience, seeds sown later will catch up--and often surpass--very early plantings.
This is your opportunity to think about what would make your garden more fertile, more enjoyable, and easier to maintain. Once crops are in the ground, it's hard to change layouts, or to address deep soil issues like compaction, poor drainage, or perennial weeds.

This summer's heat waves have left parts of my garden that need replanting and repair. Whether your garden plans have blossomed or crashed, there are choices to make now for the rest of the season.  The hours when it’s tolerable to work outside are limited, so it really helps to have a clear and concrete plan. If your priorities are clear, you can go to work without delays or indecision.

Of course you have to water, weed, and harvest the plants you already have. Many of them may need a top-dressing of compost soon to keep them productive. There may be pest problems, overgrown areas, weather damage, or the inevitable garden failures. All must be addressed.  But if you miss the window for starting new crops, your garden may peter out in August.

One solution is to write down your 3 most urgent tasks for existing plants, and your 3 most urgent new plantings to make.  You can tackle both your #1 tasks, then move down the lists.

For example, your biggest concerns might be that your tomatoes must be tied up before they collapse in a heap, the weeds are out of control, and your bush beans and lettuce are going by.  One plan you could make would be to spend your first garden session tying up those tomatoes and  while you're there sowing some lettuce in their shade. Your next garden session might be to cut down your old lettuce, run a hoe over the ground, and plant a succession crop of bush beans there. And your next few sessions might be to plant a few pots of winter vegetables and weed one small area each time.

Your priority may be a task like weeding or seed-starting. Or you may prioritize an area. You could make one bed your priority and do all the weeding, staking, tying, top-dressing, and replanting that small area needs rather than doing just one job over a larger area. What's important is to use the time you have to do the things that are most important or most time-sensitive. If you go out to the garden with your priorities clear in your mind, chances are you'll get a lot done.

July and August are important months for starting new seeds. Some may be direct-sown in the garden, others will be best in flats for transplanting later when space is available and conditions are right.

What to start is often confusing, so I've sorted them into groups to make decision-making easier. There are five types of summer plantings you can make now:

First, you might need to replace dead, dying, or spent plants. If you don’t have a replacement ready, either direct-sow the replacement, cover the area with mulch, or sow buckwheat as a quick soil-building cover crop. Fast-growing herbs like dill and basil are good options for bare spots. Leaving the area bare for even a week invites weeds and more work down the line.

Second, sow succession crops. Bush beans, corn, root crops, determinate tomatoes, lettuce, greens, sunflowers and even zucchini are all going to stop producing before the warm season is over. Now’s the time to start another wave of beans and lettuce, or a different crop to use the space. Cucumbers, bush beans, and chard are fast-growing and heat-tolerant options. Even if you already have some in production, new plants will be more vigorous and productive. Salad is often best started in a container in part shade.

Third, many herbs and flowers can be sown now. Quick-growing annuals like basil, cosmos, and coreopsis are great companion plants for late-summer pest control. Biennials and some perennials need sowing now so they can size up enough to bloom next spring.

Fourth, you need to start winter vegetables early enough for them to be productive. Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, kale, collards, and rutabagas need a long growing season, so start them soon. You don’t need to have garden space for them yet. Find a place in dappled shade or with only morning sun and start them in pots or in a bed set aside as a nursery.

Fifth, fall specialties need to be started now so they are ready to eat before hard frost. Fennel, endive, chicory (radicchio), carrots, turnips, beets, and chard make fall meals special and are best planted from now until mid-August. Fennel  especially will not stand hard winter frost, but bolts easily when planted in spring. It is at its best planted in July and August, as are all of the endive/chicory tribe.

Pots or flats need to be where they have light, but won't dry out or scorch. In cloudy, humid, or cooler climates, full sun may be fine. But if you have clear skies, dry heat and blazing sun, arrange for a place with morning sun but afternoon shade. An east-facing porch or on the east side of a shade tree is good. Sometimes indoors under lights or in a window is the best option. A frame or hoops covered with shade cloth is another option.  Wherever they are, be vigilant, as pots dry out quickly.

From now through the end of June it’s time to plant the most straightforward and gardener-friendly crops of all--summer annuals. Beans, corn, squash, zinnias, and sunflowers have been grown in North America for thousands of years. You can plant their big, easy-to-handle seeds straight into the ground once frost is over and the soil is warm. Many summer flowers like cosmos, coreopsis, and marigolds thrive in the same conditions.

These crops were perfected by Native farmers who used a digging stick and a hoe--no tractor, no plow, no greenhouse, not even a spade. They don't need a perfect seedbed. What they do need is organic matter. They were originally grown in forest clearings, in soil created by centuries of fallen leaves. You can give them a great start by working compost into the top 2’” of soil.

Each of the summer annuals likes warmth and organic matter, but each has its own niche. Rather than get into endless detail, I've highlighted three important points for each vegetable

1. What unique strength it has
2. What it needs most from you
3. What is the most common problem to watch for

Beans are renowned for their ability to enrich the soil. Colonies of special bacteria in their roots are able to use nitrogen from the air as a food for the plant. But roots can't climb out of the soil to access that air--it has to be in the soil. Compacted, hard, mineral soil doesn't have spaces for air. Organic matter provides the meeting place of soil, air, and water where roots can make optimum growth and nitrogen-fixing bacteria can thrive. 

Give beans the best start by working in compost, or even old potting soil, crumbled leaves, or rice hulls to make air spaces. And you can break up deep compaction by using a broadfork or garden fork to loosen soil slightly. Just walk down the bed sticking in the fork every 8-12" and rocking it to let in air. If you've already planted, you can stick in the fork without rocking it, to make air holes about 6"-8" away from your planted row.

Pitfalls to watch for are weeds and overheating. Use mulch or shallow hoeing to prevent weeds from competing with your beans. Weed competition will greatly reduce your harvest.
When the temperatures rise above 85, consider using shade cloth over your bean plants. Most beans prefer the same temperature range that humans do, and stop producing in very hot weather. It’s also worth seeking out heat-resistant varieties like Rattlesnake and Dragon Tongue.

Corn uses sunlight in a way that's unusual in our gardens but common in tropical plants. It's called C-4 photosynthesis and it makes corn (and its cousin sorghum) extremely fast-growing in summer, right through the hottest weather.

Your job is to provide enough water and fertility to sustain that fast growth. It’s traditional to give corn a source of nitrogen in the furrow when planting. Manure, compost, alfalfa meal, fish hydrolysate, blood meal etc can be buried under the seeds. Make a deeper-than-normal furrow, put in the manure or whatever, then a layer of soil (easy to do by running a hoe along the edge). Then you can sprinkle your seeds into the furrow and cover. They should be 1" deep. Water well if needed, and be sure that your corn gets water as it grows. If the leaf tips turn brown or yellow, or the leaves get yellow streaks, or growth is slow, you probably need to water more. If water isn't available, thin the plants to avoid competition, and mulch well.

Corn's pitfall can be poor pollination, resulting in missing kernels. To prevent it, plant in blocks at least 5 feet square rather than in a single row. Corn pollen is spread by wind rather than insects. Planting in a cluster helps the pollen from the top tassels to fall onto the ears and pollinate them. It’s important to keep cucumber beetles from eating the silks for the same reason. (the silks are pollen tubes for the kernels. When a kernel is pollinated, the silk starts to shrivel.) You can get sticky traps that attract the beetles with natural pheromones and capture them on the sticky surface without using pesticides.

Squashes superpower is their vigor in rough ground. They shade the ground with big leaves that float over the competition and out-compete most weeds. All types of squash, both zucchini and winter squash, love growing in a compost pile. This tells you three things: They like a lot of nutrients. They sprout best in warm, moist places. And they aren't picky about how "finished" the compost is. They will grow in stuff that's downright chunky and stinky, turn it into food, and grow like crazy.

When you're planting squash is the time to bury your kitchen waste, half-finished compost, rotten fruit, moldy dog food, or even dead gophers a foot (or 2 if it's dead or fishy) below the seeds or transplants. (More prosaically, use some feathermeal, alfalfa meal, or compost.)  They are great pioneer plants in new gardens--just cut down the weeds, put down cardboard or black plastic, and plant your squash in openings 4' apart. Mulching with pulled weeds or grass clippings will also give them a boost.

Their weak points are pests and diseases. Inspect the underside of leaves for rows of oval brown eggs laid by the dreaded squash bug. Squish the eggs and coat the crown of the plant and the stalks with diatom dust. In the south, borers are a big problem. One of the three squash species, C. moschata, is much more resistant to borers than the other species. Try Butternut and Tromboncino which are both C. moschata.

As fall approaches, spray with compost tea (Or other probiotic brews) to prevent mildew. In fact, take measures against mildew whenever the humidity is high and temperatures are in the 70-85 range.

Cucumbers, melons, and watermelons are members of the squash family from India, Persia, and Africa. Their vines are on a smaller scale than squash, with less rampant habit. They prefer a lighter, more cultivated soil, finished compost, and mulch. They work well in large containers or raised beds. Their sparser vines don't shade out weeds like the larger squashes do. They're still vines, though, and need water and fertility early in the season to fuel their growth. They too are prone to mildew and should get probiotics.

Summer flowers like zinnias, coreopsis, sunflowers, and marigolds are not just the icing on the cake. They are a vital link between the garden and the rest of the world. Pollinators, pest-eating predators, birds, butterflies, and humans are all drawn into the garden when you add some flowers to each garden row.

I like small marigolds at the feet of tomatoes, and zinnias at the ends of each vegetable row, along with borage. Morning Glories are the loveliest way to hide an ugly view, dead stump, wall, or bare bank--the long vines cover themselves with magical blue trumpet flowers. Coreopsis and cosmos have such feathery leaves that you can put them just about anywhere; they don't block much light so I put them wherever there are no other flowers. Dill gets the same treatment. Just sprinkle a few seeds in regular garden soil, and water when needed. When they are an inch or two high, thin to the recommended spacing. Picking flowers will stimulate the plant to make more, so enjoy!

This time of year, different places may have wildly different conditions, from almost-summer to lingering-winter. But the sequence is the same, no matter where we are along it. There are many things you can plant almost everywhere in April-May.
Here's a breakdown.

Spring crops are the most important focus now--their planting window is limited. If you're in a warm zone, do a good big sowing  before it's too hot. If you're in a cold zone, make first sowings, remembering that spring crops can take some frost.

Even if it's quite warm out, make sure the soil is moist, not soggy, before you plant. Test it by grabbing a handful of dirt and squeezing. Does water come out like wringing a sponge? Don't plant yet.  Next, nudge the ball of soil. If it crumbles, you're good. If it sticks together in a gooey ball, wait. Waterlogged soil will make your seeds rot.

Greens: Spinach, lettuce, Asian greens, mustard greens, cima di rapa.

Peas: Sow every two weeks. Early sowings should be trellised for pea production. You can still make sowings into summer for harvest as pea shoots for salad and light cooking.

Roots: Get carrots in before the soil dries out--they love a wet start. Parsnips take a long time to sprout and need a long season, so get them going. Both of them (and parsley too) sprout much faster if you soak the seeds for 4-6 hours before planting and rinse well.  Don't leave them soaking more than 24 hours max. Rinse well and plant. It's also planting time for beets, turnips, burdock, onions and leeks.

Summer crops that want a cold start: Some plants from cold-winter regions are programmed to start in cold soil even though they grow and produce all summer. Sunflowers, quinoa, and calendulas are all best planted in April, even where it's still cold. Grains like barley and spring wheat are also in this category. 

Crops that are normally transplanted outdoors after sowing inside need to get used to outdoor conditions gradually. Even after your last frost date, nights will be much colder outdoors. Wind and weather put further stresses on seedlings. Cold-hardy crops like cabbage, kale, broccoli, and Brussels Sprouts need minimal adjustments, and can go outdoors while light frost is still a possibility, but it's best to avoid windy or very hot days.

Tomatoes, beans, squash, corn, and other tender crops should not go outside until at least your last frost date. (Find it here)
Peppers, melons, eggplant, and cucumbers are best planted into very warm soil--at least 2 weeks after your last frost date, when the weather is settled and the soil is quite warm.

Before planting, pull mulch aside to let the soil warm up, and let your potted transplants "practice" being outside by putting them outdoors for longer and longer periods over the course of a week. Covering them at night is also a possibility for "hardening off," as the process of adaptation is called.

The same conditions apply for direct-sowing in the garden as for transplants. I like to sow large-seeded crops like squash, corn and beans directly into garden soil, waiting until the soil is warm after my last frost date is past. Take time to work in compost first.

Right now my garden is soupy mud, intermittently frozen. But in my mind, it's already blooming.

Our garden daydreams are not idle. They give us vision. They can be help us see past our assumptions to our actual priorities. Consider this story:

My sister taught for many years at a small elementary school. Several years ago, the parents and teachers decided that a school garden would be a good thing, and they got together to plan it.

I wasn't optimistic. I'd seen several school garden projects that failed. The parents and teachers--or sometimes a non-profit group--had planned and planted a garden, expecting the kids to revel in eating the food and being out in nature. Instead, the kids viewed it as yet another chore foisted on them by the grown-ups, and the garden soon became a weedy wasteland. Often the food plants weren't ready to harvest until the kids were gone for the summer.

At my sister's school, things started to unfold in the usual way. They started to get donations and labor for the big garden project. "What food shall we grow?" people at the meeting said. "How shall we lay it out?"

But this time, the teachers took a different tack. They didn't want the grown-ups to have all the fun of planning and the kids just get stuck with the weeding. They realized how much learning would take place in the process of figuring out the garden. So they asked the kids to draw the garden as they imagined it would be.

In the kid's drawings there were no radishes. There weren't even tomatoes, and hardly any corn. There were big sunflowers, and a circus of colorful flowers, with butterflies, frogs, and worms. So the teachers and the kids learned about pollinators and butterflies, and they planned a butterfly garden. The donations and labor made the kid's plan come true. And it's still thriving (and a circus of colors)  many years later.

This story says a lot about where to start with planning.  And not just with a planning a new project, but with established gardens as well. Your first and biggest step is clarity. Clarity about what you really need, what you really want, and what doesn't work for you right now. Our needs and wants change. Sometimes our assumptions don't.

Here are three suggestions:

1. Like the kids in the story, imagine what would be paradise for you. Then refine that down to three specific things you could plant or build or set aside to make the paradise you saw. Maybe a sitting area under a tree, bright flowers and herbs near the house, and year-round salad. Or, in a different situation, maybe a more productive workflow for your market garden, an outdoor shower, and more compost.
2. Make a list of what did not work, was irritating, or ugly or tedious in your yard. How can you fix it? My neighbor just made the hard decision to cut down old fruit trees that aren't productive, and are blocking his view. He'll plant different types in a better spot. You might need better tool storage, more privacy, better weed control, or a different watering set-up. Maybe you need to move your garbage cans or get some shade over your patio. Maybe you need corn for 2 months instead of 2 weeks. Maybe you just need less zucchini.
3. Make a rough map of your yard--all the land under your control. It doesn't have to look like a map, it could just be blobs that stand for places. Don't forget easily-overlooked places, like maybe that dark strip between the garage and the fence, or the shrubs under the windows in front, or that tight corner or rocky slope. How could some of those spots help you with your priorities or solve your problems? I've written HERE about how to use those less-obvious spots.
   

No matter where you live, any garden can benefit from more organic matter, and fall provides the best kind--leaves. Leaves are a fertility bonanza for the gardener. It's worthwhile to gather your neighbor's as well as your own. Crumbled or shredded leaves are even better. But whatever you do, don't burn them or throw them out!

Another good source of carbon is chipped branches. Leaves can be handled just like any other organic matter--use them for compost, for mulch, or for fermentation. Wood chips, on the other hand, do require slightly different treatment, so I'll go into them last.

Fallen leaves are my favorite mulch for vegetable beds, perennials, and bulbs. You can rake them up and pile them on your garden as a weed-suppressing mulch that enriches the soil. Or leave them where they fall, to fertilize lawns and flower beds.

Leaf compost has an excellent balance of nutrients, with lots of minerals, not just nitrogen. And because it feeds fungi as well as the usual bacteria, it promotes a wider array of microorganisms in your soil's food web.  It's considered outstanding for seed starting mixes, because it contains gibberellic acid, which stimulates seeds to sprout. 

Traditionally, professional gardeners gathered leaves and composted them separately to make a special soil mix for starting seeds.  Leaves often compost slowy, because it can be hard for air to penetrate once they mat down.  This can be an advantage when you use them for mulch, as they make a weed-suppressing blanket that has fewer gaps than most other mulches. This slower composting in a cooler pile means that leaf mold, as it's called, has more fungi rather than the bacteria that dominate hot compost.

Leaves also make a great addition to regular, hot compost. Just alternate leaves with other types of garden waste, and turn the pile to let in air.

Using Wood Chips

If you have a chipper, or can get chipped branches from a tree service, they are another great source of fertility. There are three important things to know about wood chips:

1. Chips from small branches (under 3" diameter) are different from more mature wood. They have more nitrogen and decay faster. They are the kind of chips to use as mulch in gardens. Mature wood chips are best for paths, animal bedding, or longer-term composting. Both are great for hotbeds, see below.
   
2. Chips will be best for garden use after sitting outdoors all winter, and especially if they are wet. By spring, breakdown will have started and fungal mycelium can use them to enrich your soil.
3. No wood product should be dug or turned into the soil. They should stay on the surface, just as they do in the forest. When sawdust or wood chips get buried in the soil, they can rob it of nitrogen temporarily,  stunting nearby plants. On the surface, there is plenty of oxygen, and the wood can slowly break down into plant food.
   

Wood Chips as a Natural Heat Source

One way to heat a greenhouse or provide bottom heat for seed-starting is with a wood-chip hotbed. Make a bin (pallets are perfect) three or four feet on a side. Fill it with thoroughly wetted chips. Within a month, it will heat up and provide even heat for a long time.  You can set seed-starting flats on top, nestled into the wood chips to add warmth for starting tender seedlings.  A couple of hoops and some clear plastic makes a heated mini-greenhouse, called a hot frame.

It is also possible to cover your hotbed with soil and grow plants in that. I have done this often with regular compost as the heat source. (Traditional hot beds were made with horse manure. The market gardeners who provided Paris with vegetables in the 1800's were able to grow 8 crops a year using this technique. And Paris is at the same latitude as Montreal!)
If I were using wood chip for this sort of hotbed, I would put cloth between the soil and the chips so they didn't mix. In a traditional bed, the compost is fully broken down by the time the crops are ready, but with wood chips, they wouldn't be ready to mix with soil. You would probably want to use them as mulch after the hotbed was done.

Another use of woodchip hotbeds is to produce hot water. A pallet bin inside a greenhouse with a coil of irrigation tubing buried inside can warm water which then circulates by convection to warm a growing bed. The amount of heat with these installations is variable, since the type of wood, the amount of moisture, the microorganisms available, and the ambient heat all play a part. This makes them great for adding a boost of heat to growing plants, but less appropriate for household hot water.

People have used large piles to heat water for household use, but it's experimental at this point, with no surefire formula available yet. If you are interested, try looking up the work of Jean Pain and his successors.