Garden Notes- March 22

This past week was a reminder that spring doesn’t arrive all at once.

We started with temperatures dropping below zero—cold enough that a heater failure overnight could set things back in a big way.

It turned into a few nights of hauling seedling trays in and out to keep everything protected.

Protecting What’s Growing

Most of the concern this week was with the onions—about 3,500 seedlings.

They take around eight weeks to grow before transplanting, so losing them now would mean it would be too late to start over with seeding. 

With temperatures dropping below zero, it turned into a routine of carrying trays from the nursery greenhouse into the shop at night, then back out during the day for sunlight. It’s time-consuming, but far better than risking a setback.

Indoor growing space is limited, so it’s a constant shuffle.

On sunny days, I move tomatoes outside to get real light. During the cold stretch, they stayed indoors, which delayed transplanting peppers into larger pots.

That delay stretched another day when I realized the potting mix I needed was frozen solid in the shed.

Everything is now back on track.

The tomatoes are out in the nursery greenhouse getting full sunlight, and the peppers are settling into their new pots and starting to take off.

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From Winter to Spring

Midweek, everything changed.

Snow in the morning turned into bare ground by afternoon.

By Thursday, we were back in the tunnels prepping beds—seeding carrots, transplanting peas, and getting ready for onions to go in next.

Friday brought calm, wonderful weather and a chance to keep building momentum.

Mushroom Season Is Underway

I started inoculating shiitake mushroom bags this week.

They’ll take about 3 months before they’re ready to fruit, but this is where it begins.

It’s a slower process—but one that’s worth the wait.

Behind the Scenes

On the colder days, I shifted indoors and started building new shelving display for the Fargo market.

This has been in the works for close to a year—thinking through the design and what it needs to handle. It has to be strong, collapsible, and built to carry both the weight of produce and the wind at market.

It’s all being built from trees milled right here at home, and it’s starting to come together.

Looking Ahead

Carrots are now seeded and should germinate in about 12 days.

If the weather cooperates, we could have fresh carrots ready to harvest around mid to late May—right around Memorial weekend.

Spring vegetables are some of the best of the entire season—sweet, tender, and worth the wait.

The season is just getting started.

I’ll let you know as soon as the first harvests are ready—and what’s available each week.

—

Joe
Midheaven Garden
Farm Fresh. Family Ready.