Organic. Period.

Other spring garden seeds besides peas have sprouted and are growing. Lettuce, radishes, and spinach all have at least one set of true leaves from a planting 10-14 days ago. If you live in the central Midwest and haven’t had a chance to get your early seeds out yet, now is the time. Most will grow even if the soil seems a little cold and wet. These early spring plants like the cool temperatures and spring rains. Just protect them from a prolonged hard freeze.

 Lettuce seeds are up.

Radishes have sprouted.

Spinach is keeping up.

Even with the typical cold then warm then freezing then cool temperature fluctuations, those reliable little peas have sprouted, as they always do.

With a few days of perfect 50+ highs and 40’s lows for temperatures in the upcoming weather forecast, everything else should start growing, too. Peas can withstand light frost and temps down to about 30F if not prolonged. We had a dip to 28F last night. Everything seems to have come through ok. Of course I had most things covered or carried back onto the porch where they were protected.

These peas should be blooming in about a month, with pea pods a few days after.

Chives are up and growing in the garden. I leave last year’s debris as mulch over the winter, and I’ll clear it all away now and divide the clumps of chives. The potted chives I’ve had indoors in the kitchen all winter will be moved back outside now, too.

Chives appear about the time early peas begin to sprout. If you haven’t planted your peas yet, the emerging chives are a signal that the ground temperature is warm enough for your early crops to grow.

 Chives are a great plant to share with your gardening friends and neighbors. They transplant easily, and they reseed readily.

I’ll snip down the chives in the kitchen and use them in some herb bread. The plants will then be ready to send out new growth as soon as they are in the garden again.

Is there anything quite as cheerful as a yellow daffodil in early spring? I have daffodils like this one and many other varieties of jonquils naturalized throughout parts of the woods, and they multiply every year.

 Last spring I used a little bone meal around them just after they finished blooming. I sprinkled a small handful around each clump, and then scratched it into the soil with a small garden fork.  This annual bone meal seems to really help. I haven’t always done it, thinking that if I naturalized with the bulbs, they could just make it on their own in the rich loamy soil in the woods.

Of course, the trees in the woods use up huge amounts of soil nutrients and water. A few years ago, I began treating the bulbs with bone meal, and watering them in the hot summer during dry spells, even though there isn’t any top growth to see then. The reward has been increased size and number of blooms, and the spreading has increased, too.

Perennial herbs are coming out of dormancy, and it is time to divide or transplant them in most areas of the US except the northernmost states.

Thyme is a woody little plant, almost like a little shrub. As soon as I see some of the tiny leaves beginning to green up, I divide last year’s spread of rooted plants and get them transplanted for the new season.

This thyme is ready to divide and transplant.

 The soil is workable, so the divisions were transplanted to a new area of the herb garden. Even if the soil seems moist, water the transplants a little to help the roots make contact.

Transplanted thyme has been pruned
to promote new growth.

I’ve been removing the winter mulch that covered many of my perennial flowers and herbs. The coneflowers are not actually showing any green yet, but it was time to get them open to the sunlight and warmth.

Coneflowers are the source for “Echinacea”. They are a lovely, purple daisy-like flower that is well-loved by butterflies and bees. Divide your clump of coneflowers every couple of years, and they will spread even faster. You can divide them in the spring, or in the early fall, before dormancy so they can establish a good root system for the winter.

This is a small clump that was a small division done last spring.
It sure doesn’t look like much yet!

Spring brings so much to do in the garden, and the busy days are not even here yet!

The yard is dotted with small patches of crocus blooms. They are here for only a day or so, and then gone until next year.  But what cheerful little blooms they are.

When my daughter was small, she said one day that they were little smiles all over the yard. I thought that was very perceptive for a four year old. (She’s in her 20’s now…)

The mounds of jonquil leaves are just filled with buds, and some of them are even beginning to bloom. I have naturalized them throughout a large area of the woods near the house, and they are really lovely. I’ll estimate about 10 days to full bloom for them.

Kale is a very hardy crop. Even here in the Midwest where we had temps below zero a few times over the winter plus ice and snow, my kale is back this Spring. It had been covered with about 4-6 inches of loose leaves and grass mulch. Some years it comes again in the spring, and some years it doesn’t. You know Spring is here when you uncover the kale and see little green sprouts coming along.

Plant kale as soon as you can work the soil in the spring. Choose a sunny spot where water won’t stand. If you’re afraid of late snow and ice, keep some mulch handy, and you can just give seedlings a quick cover-up.

Saturday afternoon was perfect for planting peas. The ground was a little cool, but not wet and muddy, so it was very easy to open a furrow with a hoe and get the peas into the ground.You should plant peas as early as you can work the soil. Space them about 1 - 2 inches apart in the row, and about 1 inch deep. Keep some mulch handy in case the weather turns freezing again and you want to cover them with it. Peas are very hardy, but a little TLC never hurt them.

I put out Maestro, a variety I have good luck with. It makes nice long pods, about 4″ long, with 10 or more peas in each pod. I also planted some snow peas, the sugar snap kind. I pick some of them when they are flat, but they are surprisingly good, pods and all, if left until the pods are rounded out.

It is time to plant your indoor starts for tomatoes and peppers and the other transplants on your list. I got mine in last week on the 4th.

I used some jiffy peat pellets in planting flats, and kept them in a warm place to speed germination. The top of the refrigerator works for gentle warmth, and so does the top of the tv. Most of the tomatoes are up, and the WAVE Petunias are just showing their tiny little pin-point leaves.

The WAVEs were pelleted seeds, so they were easy to handle. So far 11 out of 15 petunias have germinated, and I hope I can keep them growing. Everything tends to get leggy because I don’t have much window space.