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Bountea Growing Tips
  March 2010
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In This Issue
March Garden Tasks
Veggies in Containers
Quick Links
 Dear Reader,

I hope you have visited our revitalized website.  We are continuing to upgrade all the information and organize it so it is easy to access.  Please let us know if you have any suggestions.  I was recently interview by Alex Wise of Sea Change Radio  - the MP3 file is also available on our website.
Roland in the garden
When I was in San Francisco doing the interview with Alex, he showed me his small back yard and patio.  He commented that he, like a majority of city dwellers, just did not have the garden space to grow what he would like.  This month's article addresses this problem by offering tips on how to grow vegetables in containers.  Everyone should have at least a few lettuces and tomatoes this summer.

On the gardening front, the weather continues very cold and snowy, and I am gradually slipping behind my ideal planting schedule.  However, I am being diligent with the Bountea Blog, so you can read my up-to-date postings on fava beans and oriental greens.  You can also find my thoughts on garden ecology and some future musings on the relationship between gardening and inner growth.

Regards,
Roland Evans
Organic Bountea

March Garden Tasks
(March 15th -- April 15th)

March is a tricky month so use your experience to decide what, when and how to plant.
Tip: Risk an early planting of a portion of seeds or seedlings -- save enough in case of a killing frost.

Vegetable seeds indoors: eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, basil.  Soak peas and germinate in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel.
Flower seeds indoors: Half Hardy Annuals -- snapdragon, begonias, aster, impatiens, lobelia, petunia, hollyhock, alyssum, etc.  Try germinating as above.
Growing Salad


Vegetable seeds outdoors (temperatures over 40 degrees): beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, chard, kohlrabi, arugula, mesclun, lettuce, onions, parsnips, radishes, rutabaga, spinach, turnips, chives, cilantro, dill, fennel, thyme, oregano, sage.
Flower seeds outdoors: Hardy Annuals -- sweet pea, larkspur, bachelor's button, calendula, violas.

Roots, tubers and plants outdoors: onion sets, seed potatoes, rhubarb burls, shallots, strawberry plants, grapes (mulch grape roots), tarragon.

Ornamentals: cut back ornamental grasses, transplant shrubs and roses that need to be moved.
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The Bountea Growing System:  Now is the  time to apply your first dose of Bountea, if you have not done already.  Be sure to add Root Web and M3 to your first brew.  Dose the whole garden that is workable including your indoor and outdoor containers.
   
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Veggies in Containers

 Most people have grown a plant in a pot.  Growing vegetables in containers is similar but needs a little more care and attention, particularly at the start.  The idea is to reproduce a mini garden ecology.  Disregard advice that suggests mono-crops in soilless potting mixes with chemical fertilizers.  Think rich moist soil, mulches, companion planting and micro-environments.
 
Containers
Containers
Purchase or build sturdy, wide and deep containers.  Except when you are growing shallow-rooted vegetable such as lettuce (see below), your vegetables need as much space as possible to expand their root systems.  14" - 18" square containers, 12" deep are optimum but any large pot (2 gallons plus) will do. Modern self-watering containers are excellent for the busy gardener. 
 
Most containers need adequate drainage.  However, lettuce and all salad greens can be grown in 4" deep trays with no drainage holes.  Cover the bottom ½" of the tray with pea gravel.  Cut out sturdy weed-supressant cloth to fit over the gravel and fill the rest of the depth with your soil mix.
 
Container Soil 
Make your own premium potting soils, even if that means adding something to bagged mixes.  Soil is the essential element of your container garden and should be rich, fertile and porous with a slightly open texture.  Coir coconut fiber is a better soil base than sphagnum peatmoss: it is renewal, holds water and does not degrade as fast.  Avoid potting soils that are mostly ground up bark. 
 
Garden compost, Humisoil or mushroom compost is essential to contain moisture... read more


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the Bountea way.

Organic Bountea
info@bountea.com  800-798-0765