Happy Spring!

Spring is officially here, although it feels like it began a few weeks ago. This spring is predicted to be warmer than usual. In fact, due to the effects of climate change all of 2016 is predicted to be the hottest year on record. Now is a great time to starting planning your garden for the season.

Preparing your outdoor spaces for spring is a crucial step in creating a garden of abundance. Using permaculture practices can help you welcome spring in a way that works with instead of against nature. 

Here are some tasks to do in in early spring to get your garden off to an excellent start:

1. Plan your garden
 This is one of the most important steps to having a garden of abundance. Plan out what you want to grow and where. Pay special attention to the sunlight, which is one of the most important factors in determining where things can be planted. In general plan for a series of small garden projects. It's much easier (and cheaper) to tackle small projects than it is to transform your entire space in one season. Plus, small garden projects allow you to sit back and observe how you are affecting nature. If you plan to start a Forest Garden this year, start by planning where you are going to plant the tallest layer (for me, the tallest layer is the small tree layer since I already have many tall trees!). 

2. Start seeds indoors
Now is the time to start seeds indoors. Many annual vegetables and flowers grow best when planted directly in the ground but a few - such as tomatoes and peppers - need to be started indoors in order to guarantee you have food to harvest. Try to choose organic, heirloom varieties that are open-pollinated. Open-pollinated seeds provide more pollen for pollinators and ensure you can save the seed for next year. An annual garden provides us with food we like to eat and are used to eating. But think about also planting some edible perennials in your garden as well. They will come back on their own year after year and need less inputs than annuals. Plus, you can grow food that isn't commercially available such as Good King Henry or Aronia berries. 
 
3. Wait before digging or clearing away stems
I know Spring is an exciting time of year - it's my favourite season! But most native bees spend their winter in the ground or in pithy stems. Give them a little time to emerge from ground that has been bare (without mulch). A safe time to start digging and clearing away pithy stems is when the dandelions are in bloom. Watch the ground before digging for a few minutes, if you don't see any bees, dig away.  I gather all my pithy stemmed lawn debris from the previous gardening season (bamboo stakes, dead raspberry canes, etc) and leave them standing up in a corner of my yard until mid May to ensure all the nesting bees and other insects have had a chance to fully emerge. 

  4. Create a no-dig garden
No-dig gardening keeps the soil critters including worms, bacteria, and fungi alive and thriving. This will create a much healthier garden that works with instead of against nature. Plus, no-dig garden beds do not require the use of a rototiller and is an important part of switching to low carbon gardening. Early spring is great time to create a sheet mulched garden bed. You will be amazed with how quickly it breaks down - I have sheet mulched garden beds in April and planted seeds in them in May. Toby Hemenway, the author of the excellent book Gaia's Garden has a straight-forward article for creating an excellent no dig garden bed.

5. Switch to low (or no) carbon gardening
Remember how this is predicted to be the hottest year on record? It's time that people - especially those of us in North America - get off our addiction to crude oil. Even if our individual acts make only a small impact, it is so important to explore alternative ways of living (and gardening) that are not based on a dependence on oil and its byproducts. Make this the year you commit to low or no carbon gardening. An easy way to do that is to commit to not using artificial fertilizers and pesticides and to buying organic seeds and seedlings. Another simple thing to do is to get rid of gas powered machinery such as lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, rototillers or (shudder) leaf blowers. Those little machines guzzle a surprising amount of gas. Working in the garden without gas powered tools is an amazing way to get a great workout. If you can't do the labour, see if a family member, friend or neighbour can. And, surprisingly, some tasks like sheet mulching are less strenuous that their gas-guzzling counterpart (rototilling). Replace your lawn with white clover as a way to stop using you lawn mower. It only grows eight inches and the flower provides excellent food for bees. Spring is a great time to plant some white clover. Mix the seeds with some soil and broadcast it all over your lawn.

I find spring to be a dreamy and exciting time. If part of your dream is to enjoy the abundance of nature without destroying it, these steps can help you as you start or continue that journey. 

Some excellent seed companies and permaculture nurseries:

The Cottage Gardener
Beautiful Edibles
Urban Harvest
West Coast Seeds
Artemisia Nursery
Fiddlehead Nursery
Richters Herbs
Whiffletree Nursery