Author: Steven

In March even when overnight frosts are still common, it’s time to plant peas. If you didn’t get yours in the ground on March 17, the traditional pea-planting day, you still have time.

For inspiration, above is a bit of last year’s crop, bursting over the top of our trellis.

Being out in the garden to poke peas under the ground also is a good time to observe how the rest of the garden is getting ready to wake up. Or, has already woken up. At the end of last year, Karla sowed Swiss chard and then we covered it with floating row cover, which protected it all winter. When we pulled the cover off a couple weeks ago and it was a delight to see the chard sprightly, green and healthy. We sauteed the first batch with olive oil, garlic and salt for our dinner March 24.

Do you like your chard early in the season when the flavor is subtle and mild or later when the stalks assert their earthiness, a magical mix of soil and light?

It’s fun to look at all the beds now, a blank canvas.

Photos by Karla Cook

Hello, and happy Spring! We are in full garden-bed mode at Bountiful Boxes – get your orders in so you can optimize the 2017 growing season. A note: Prices for our kits have increased. We are now being charged a premium for the long-lasting cedar planking (it’s a trade dispute between the US and Canada over softwood lumber; costs for American buyers were held down by the Softwood Lumber Agreement that expired in October 2015 and was held in place by a one-year moratorium until October 2016, but it’s possible this is temporary if terms of NAFTA are renegotiated; read more here).

 

The oak bed that had produced many beautiful vegetables at Whole Earth Center since 2012 was still in solid shape but I decided to spruce up the demonstration bed over there by installing a tall, capped version of our popular cedar bed.

The bed is one board higher than our standard bed and has a picture-frame cap around the top. This raises the bed to the height of a standard chair and creates a nice surface on which to sit.

What would you like us to plant in it? Or better yet, what would you plant, if you had your own blank slate of rich black soil like this?

Here’s a rule of thumb: First, grow your own. Then, if there’s something you still need, buy it at the Whole Earth Center.

As inspiration for the year ahead, here is a sampling of goodies harvested from our own boxes and the surrounding garden last year.

 

From time to time I’ve made garden beds with caps on them that give the bed a finished look and provide a place to sit. Many people have asked for them but I did not have a good way to offer the add-on as a kit that would be easy for anyone to install. I am excited to say that I have worked out a good system and am offering a cap for sale!

Here are photos of caps on a friend’s bed (a custom 3′ width):

Our western red cedar lasts a long time but nothing is forever. One of the nice things about our design is that individual pieces can be removed and replaced. Today I am introducing a partial warranty and replacement part policy. If you purchased a bed from Bountiful Boxes in the previous three years — this year, that’s 2012, 2013 or 2014 — and have found a part not holding up well, please let me know and I will give you a replacement part at no charge. If your bed is older than that, I am offering replacement pieces for the lifetime of your bed at a near-cost price.

For details, please see our replacement parts page.

On our DIY page, I offer instructions for how to make a Bountiful Boxes kit yourself instead of paying me to do it. The only payment I ask in return is photos of your garden to show off.

Reader Brad Graham took up the challenge in fall 2014, and from the looks of it did a terrific job. He wrote:

The instructions were clear and everything went swimmingly. 
I lived in Princeton for a year and would frequent the Whole 
Earth Center, which is how I was familiar with your site. We 
just moved to Ardmore, PA (just outside of Philadelphia) and 
one of my first goals was to put in some gardening space. 
I'm really excited for the spring time so I can get my hands 
dirty. Hopefully we don't have another winter like last 
year. The township I live in offers free leaf compost for 
residents, which I've used to fill the beds. It took around 
eight trash cans (8*32=256 gallons) per bed. 

I planted some fall garlic bulbs back in mid-October, but 
with this warm weather I'm starting to see a few sprouts, 
just have to plant them later next year. My next step is to 
gather some leaves, shred them up, and mulch the beds.

Chives are a beautiful perennial to have in a raised garden bed. Ours were blooming gloriously the other day.

At the bottom of the picture, you can see a rascally sprig of mint photobombing the picture. Really, that’s mint’s approach to the whole garden – once it’s in there it pops up everywhere. Beware of putting mint in your raised bed!

The peas have sprouted, the lettuce is up and apple trees are blooming — all so welcome.

The peas should be ready to pick by early June.

 

These apples – Arkansas Black – are late season, producing beautiful dark-skinned fruit that’s ready to pick in October.

So these early spring harbingers actually book-end the season.