Community Garden: So you think winter is over?

How do you like this weather? Isn’t this really great? You have been waiting for this for the last four months. Now you have to get out there and go to work in your garden. The competition is on!

You cannot let your neighbor or the guy across town have a bigger garden than you or grow more stuff than you grow. It is just un-American. You have to compete. Yeah right! That is what they all want you to think. Go ahead and buy a bunch of young green plants for your garden and put them in the ground. It is so warm and sunny outside and the time is perfect to plant. WRONG!

We still have one or two more freezes left in us and if you plant your garden now you will make all the plant sellers rich beyond their wildest imaginations. If you listen real close you can hear them calling you to come spend your money. They have the best looking plants and now is the time to get yours. What they don’t tell you is that when the next freeze gets here you won’t be able to protect your entire garden and you will have to buy more plants.

You know if you have a little patience and you just wait for the right time to plant your garden you will save yourself a lot of work, time and money. Every day you will go out and look at all the dirt in your garden and admire how it is going to make all those plants grow big and strong and how many tasty vegetables you are going to get. Then you look at your neighbor and they have plants in the ground and they look so good and green and strong.

AND THEN IT HAPPENS! Yep!

Just a little one but just enough to get all of them! A frost! You think you are all right and no damage has been done but you know better. You have done this same thing before and you know what you have to do. You have to pull up all those dead plants and go buy some more.

But wait! It is still too early to plant but you can’t control yourself so you go buy some more plants. You know these will be the best yet. You keep them in your garage for a few days to harden them off and get them adjusted to the temperature in the world outside a greenhouse. Now is the time so you get all your tools ready and you plan a day to plant your garden again. What a dummy!

Patience my friend, patience! It is still too early to be buying plants and seeds for your garden and way too early to be putting them in the ground. You have another month or more to go before the work begins. Do yourself a favor and watch everyone else do what they should not do while you wait.