It is snowing as I am writing this. Again!  Yet, visions of growing veggies are dancing in my head. That is about the only place they can dance right now.  The question that comes to mind is- Can anything be planted yet for the One More Row program?

For raised beds, if you check your soil temperature and cloche the beds you can probably get started on this year’s growing season with spring greens and spinach along with early peas.
If you don’t have raised beds and need to till your garden space, then I would say don’t till your garden until your soil has dried out a bit but try your hand as some early peas. But that depends on your drainage, soil texture, and how you prepared your garden last fall.

A tidbit about soils. Soil structure (the arrangement of aggregates in a soil), the tilth, water drainage along with many other factors can determine the level of productivity from your garden. Much of the soil here in the SW Portland hills area is saturated with water at this time of year and if you try doing a deep tilling too soon you could easily destroy your garden’s soil structure, particularly if you have fine or medium textured soils ( more clay than sand). It can take a long time to recondition soil after its structure has been compromised. Tilling too early can produce clods that are hard to break up later on and they can interfere with good seed germination. One way to hurry up this drying out process could be to build a cloche over the planned gardening area to aid in both warming up the soil and not allowing as much precipitation to fall on the garden bed. This could possibly take a couple of weeks or more and so it is not a quick fix. 

There are a number of ways to check how wet your soil is. One is to dig down 6-8 inches and collect a handful of the soil. Compress the soil gently into a ball of about 6 inches, toss it into the air, and let it drop back into your hand. If the ball crumbles apart then the garden is ready to be worked. If the ball only falls apart a bit then the soil needs more drying out time. Other methods are mentioned in the listed sources.

Soil temperature is also of importance in the vegetable garden. Peas can germinate when soil temperatures are in the upper 30s but if there is a lot of moisture there is a tendency for the seeds to rot. Right now soil temperature in SW Portland is hovering around 40 degrees down to 6 inches and the soil is rather saturated.
 
Your first planting of peas could probably take place now in a well-drained garden if care is taken not to harm soil structure. A deep tilling is not needed for this very early planting of peas.  Sow the seeds fairly shallow in a scraped furrow. Soil is warmer in the top 1 ½ inches of soil on sunny days. Use row covers for warming to help in seed germination. A clear cover lets in the full spectrum of the Sun’s radiant energy like a miniature greenhouse with black mulch on the ground surface to help with weed control. Pay attention to the seedlings on sunny days if you use row covers or cloches and maybe remove them as the days warm.  Don’t want to cook the peas before their time!
Oregon Sugar Pod II is a good variety to try for an early pea crop but don’t expect vigorous growth during late winter. For more ideas about late Winter/early Spring gardening you can check out some of the listed sources.

I hope this gets you started with this year’s garden crop and that you have space for One More Row in your garden plans. It is anticipated, that a small garden will be functioning this year at West Hills but we are still in the planning stages of just what directions to go with vegetable gardening on the church’s campus.

A parting thought:

Do we sometimes try to take a rototiller to someone’s soul , trying to get them off to an early start of spiritual growth  but instead create clods in their  lives that stunt even the germination of  new life in them ?  Gal 6:1

Please check back with us as the One More Row program grows,

Chris

Sources:
Sustainable Gardening, The Oregon -Washington Master Gardener Handbook (Oct 2008)
Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades 5th Edition by Steve Solomon
The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide (2000 Ed) by Seattle Tilth
Row Covers for Vegetable Gardens, WSU, King County Extension, Community Horticulture Fact Sheet #19, http://king.wsu.edu/Gardening/documents/19RowCoversforVegetableGardens.pdf
Territorial Seed Catalog Spring 2009