Spring 2025
- pschulze7
- Mar 31
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 2
2025 Spring Calendar - Updates will be posted as more information becomes available.
Our regular garden workdays are Tuesdays & Saturdays, 8 am - 11 am, weather permitting.
Please register on SignUp Genius to see the garden activities scheduled for the date you select. When you register on SignUp Genius, you will be notified by email of any necessary schedule changes.
April
1 Tues. Harvest - Lettuce & Spinach
5 Sat. Garden Workday/NCSU Student Service Day
8 Tues. Harvest/St. John's Episcopal Church Families in the Garden
12 Sat. Garden Workday - First Tomato Planting
15 Tues. Harvest
16 Wed. WFPC Youth in the Garden
19 No Sat. Garden Workday
20 EASTER Sunday
22 Tues. EARTH DAY/Harvest
23 Wed. WFPC Youth in the Garden
26 Sat. Garden Workday - LDS Youth & Adults; Plant summer vegetables
29 Tues. Harvest
30 Wed. WFPC Youth in the Garden
May
3 Sat. Garden Workday - 2nd tomato planting
6 Tues. Harvest
7 Wed. WFPC Youth in the Garden
10 Sat. Garden Workday
13 Tues. Harvest/St. John's Families in the Garden
17 Sat. Garden Workday - 3rd tomato planting
20 Harvest
24 Sat. Garden Workday
27 Harvest
31 Sat. Garden Workday
June
3 Tues. Harvest
7 Sat. Garden Workday
10 Tues. Harvest/St. John's Families in the Garden
14 Sat. Garden Workday - Plant sweet potatoes (Rain date: June 21)
17 Tues. Harvest first Early Girl Tomatoes
21 Sat. Harvest
The Giving Garden/Master Gardener Workshop on Sunday, March 30
was a huge success!
70 members of our community joined us in the garden where they rotated through hands-on educational stations focused on soil testing and amendments, composting basics, container/raised bed gardening, and integrated pest management.
Education was provided by Deanna Bigio, NC State Extension Agent - Horticulture Wake County, 13 NC State Extension Master Gardeners, and Larry Roper, WFPC Giving Garden Agricultural Advisor and former NC State Extension Agent.
We're sincerely grateful for their expertise, time commitment, and love of teaching and gardening!
"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." Janet Kilburn Phillips
Container Gardening Larry Roper
Container gardening can provide fresh vegetables and can enhance the appearance and appeal of decks and porches. This growing option is good for people who want to start small in their gardening journey or don’t have a large space to plant a traditional garden. Container gardening also can provide the sense of success and enjoyment of “farm to table” healthy food.
This growing season, The Giving Garden created a small container garden area with several different vegetables, and you are invited to visit to see what we’re doing with this exciting growing method, and we encourage you to try Container Gardening at your home.
Choosing your container - Almost any container can be used as long as it’s large enough for the plants you desire to grow and the space where you place it gets enough sun. Be creative in choosing your containers, in The Giving Garden we are using an old and out of commission wheelbarrow. It adds variety and interest to our space. Many retail establishments sell containers made from many different materials; this however can get expensive. Look for used containers on online sales outlets. Make sure whatever you use, has a drain hole so your plants don’t drown.
Soil – The Giving Garden recommends using commercially produced potting soil/compost to fill your container. Don’t use soil from your traditional garden or from around your yard as it will contain weeds, insects, and disease. You don’t want to introduce these to your container garden.
Plants – Small, compact plants are best for container gardens; these include lettuce; broccoli; spinach; herbs; cabbage; Swiss chard, which has beautiful colors, and onions. Larger vegetables including cucumbers; eggplant, choose an Asian variety, as they are milder and slightly sweeter in flavor, have less tough skin, and smaller seed; squash and even tomatoes are appropriate for container gardens. Again, consider the size of your container and the sun requirement; tomatoes need a lot of sun.
Location – Chose a site that has an easy water source and the required hours of sun for the plants you want to grow.
Remember to follow these tips:
-Use containers with drainage holes.
-Use commercial potting soil.
-Plant vegetables and herbs that have similar growing requirements for light, water, and fertilizer.
-Chose as site that has the amount of sun needed for the plants you want to grow.
-An easy source of water makes this maintenance requirement less work.
One of our Garden Team Leadership members want to share her container garden.
Spring Season - News That You Can Use
What to Fertilize
Fertilize your important shade trees if needed.
Fertilize asparagus beds early in March before spear growth begins.
Before planting your vegetables (pre-plant), fertilize and lime your garden as recommended by your soil test.
"An optimistic gardener is one who believes that whatever goes down must come up."
Leslie Hall
What to Plant
Small fruit plants (strawberries and blackberries), grape vines, and fruit trees before bud break.
March is a great month to plant trees, shrubs, ground covers, perennials (iris, peony, phlox) and rose bushes.
Cool season vegetables (beets, carrots, cabbage, kale, lettuce, onions, Irish potatoes, radishes, and spinach) should be planted now, before our temperature turns hot.
What to Prune
Spring flowering plants like forsythia, spires, and flowering quince after the flowers fade.
Prune roses before buds break. (Some of the roses in the church memorial garden have already started growing new leaves.)
Rejuvenate pruning of evergreen shrubs such as ligustrum and needle point hollies.
Lawn Care
To control crabgrass in lawns, apply recommended pre-emergence herbicides.
To establish turf grasses (both warm and cool season grasses) in mid-March tip just prior to dogwood bloom.
Propagation
Divide perennials such as ferns, herbs, and dianthus. They would be a great gift to your friends at The Giving Garden.
"I cultivate my garden and my garden cultivates me." Robert Breault
Opmerkingen