An Abundant New Year, a Thriving New Garden

It’s time to banish the winter blues, so who out there is hoping Mr. Groundhog won’t see his shadow so that spring will come early? I know at The Plant Farm we sure are! Daily shipments of inspiring new plants and tools arrive at our receiving dock. Seeing the new product come in has us excited to plan our gardens and get some seeds sprouting!

TPF’s Edibles Expert Kip Litehiser

This year, we wish you abundance and a thriving new garden. To that end, I had a chat with our edibles expert, Kip Litehiser, about what factors are necessary for a successful garden and how he prepares for a new garden season.

Right about now, Kip is planning what he’ll grow this year and he’s purchasing his seeds so he can get his seedlings going. Kip likes to break his seed starting into two phases; early starts, which he does indoors, and later in the spring, seeds that will be sown directly into the ground.

Plant lettuce early and you’ll harvest more often.

“February is the time for early starts like your tough-to-grow-in-the-ground plants; parsley and hearty herbs, artichokes and onions,” he says. It’s also a good time to start plants you’ll want to harvest early and often, like lettuce and beans.

Soil temperature is a key component in raising crops and our Pacific Northwest climate can be challenging in that regard. “Warm soil is key. It’s almost more important than sunshine. Sunshine is obviously important, but you can have sunshine and still have cold ground soil,” Kip says. That’s why Kip prefers to use

The soil in raised beds warms more quickly.

raised beds for his garden. The soil is up off the ground and takes on the sun’s warmth more quickly.

Plants that need a longer growing season than our Pacific Northwest climate affords need to be started indoors. This allows the plants to become more established and hardy. They will be stronger when they are transplanted into the garden soil in mid-to-late March. The Plant Farm has your back on this one. We’re once again offering a Seed Starting Success Kit designed to make starting your garden from seeds easy and efficient. Like last year, the kit includes an excellent seed starting soil and Dr. Earth Starter, an organic fertilizer. This year we’ve added a couple of cool

The secret to success is our Seed Starting Success Kit

new tools: A Lusterleaf Rapidclip Seed Sower, for more accurate seed dispersal, and a Planters Pride Self Watering Grow System with Coir pots. Coir is a biodegradable, coconut husk fiber that allows you to transplant your seed start into the ground, pot and all, protecting the root system when transplanting.We know how intimidating or frustrating starting seeds can be. For personal attention to your questions and concerns, come into The Plant Farm and look up our Edibles expert, Kip. He’ll be thrilled to share his knowledge so you’ll have a successful seed starting process this year.

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