Snow Crops that keep on Cropping

Left to right: Volunteers Barbara Tusting, Mary Beth Haralovich, Mary Paxton, and Louise Huntingford with Feb. 27th bounty bound for the Quilcene Food Bank. Included are microgreens, pac choi, bags of salad greens, turnips, turnip greens, and radishes.

Taken from the Grange Newsletter

Our garden team is busy with many tasks this month! Weeding and mulching our paths are unending jobs, but keeping the weeds at bay is so important.

You can plant snap and shelling peas directly into your garden (assemble your trellis first!), but we prefer to start them indoors. We use toilet paper tubes and put 2-3 peas in each one. They like climbing together, so we don't break them apart, we just plant the whole tube. That causes the least root disturbance possible. Then, when they're about 6" inches tall, we plant them outside. The birds don't peck them to pieces that way. One final pea tip - they're likely to be healthier if you coat your seeds with pea inoculant. You can buy it locally or order it online.

You can also get new strawberries snugged into their beds - or clear out the dead leaves in your existing beds. Leave about 18" inches around each plant to provide an uncrowded, airy, and accommodating bed for those luscious beauties!

Our microgreens have been a big hit at the Quilcene Food Bank. We've used everything from egg cartons to sanitized take-out containers to donate nutrient-rich greens into our community. 

ALL the produce grown at this garden is donated to food banks and other similar entities to enhance food security in our area. Contact FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com  to volunteer at this garden or one near you.

Submitted by Grange Garden co-manager Barbara Tusting with FB edits by Kathy Ryan.