Henny Penny Farmette

If you are someone like me who loves to garden, you have the first day of spring circled on your calendar. For 2020, spring arrives on March 19.

Plant bare root fragrant roses and engage in mindfulness practice. Both will have you stopping to smell the roses

Bare-root season (when fruit trees, roses, and other plants are dormant and sap is not flowing) is now. Here in the Bay Area, the soil is currently soft and makes for easy turning with a spade. Now is the time to incorporate some roses or other bare root plants into your garden. There are several reasons to do so.

1. Planting bare root saves you money. If you are buying from a local nursery or a seller who ships, you’ll find the cost cheaper because you’re not paying for soil or containers.

2. Better selection. You can purchase heirloom varieties of deciduous trees and shrubs from all over the world when you buy bare root. Bare root fruit trees are popular with back yard gardeners but you might also consider artichokes, rhubarb, strawberries, grapes, asparagus, and many other plants that are sold as bare root.

Rhubarb is a bare root plant that flourishes in rich soil with some protection against direct overhead sun

3. You have flexibility. Planting in February just before spring means the ground has thawed in areas where freezing temperatures are the norm. When the ground is growing warmer and is workable is the time to tuck your bare root plants into the soil.

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If you enjoy reading about country living topics, check out my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries, including A BEELINE TO MURDER, THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE, and A HIVE OF HOMICIDES (Kensington Publishing). These mysteries also include farm to-do lists and delicious recipes.

Get the three-book series of cozy mysteries with elements based on the real Henny Penny Farmette

I’ve also written over two dozen self-help and wellness books, including THE SELF-CARE PLANNER,  HOW TO LIVE WITH INTENTION, and MY POCKET MEDITATIONS (Adams Media/Simon and Schuster).

Find Meera Lester’s books online and in traditional bookstores everywhere. Barnes & Noble will be featuring THE SELF-CARE PLANNER on its self-care table for the New Year, New You promo, starting Dec. 31 and running through March 2020, in select stores.

Start at any point in your year or life with this self-guided planner

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Nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, and berries are not difficult to grow. Some can even be grown in containers on a sunny patio. My favorite superfoods include blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries as well as artichokes, assorted leafy greens, and figs. But in general, superfoods are those foods rich in nutrients, vitamins, fiber, antioxidants, and/or omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

The dark purplish color is characteristic of the brown turkey fig, and this tree needs a lot of space in the garden

On the farmette, I’ve planted several fig trees that are semi-dwarf and include White Genoa, Brown Turkey, and Mission varieties. These  trees produce two crops each year–one in spring and the other in the fall. The fruits can be dried or eaten fresh and contain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and phenol for the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease.

I’ve planted raised beds of strawberries, including Albion, a variety that produces berries from June to October, and Sequoia, a dependable berry that produces fruit from June to early frost.

In half barrels, I’ve amended soil and planted thornless raspberries and blackberries. I like growing them in containers with trellis support because otherwise they spread all over any area of the garden where they’re planted.

Artichokes are lovely plants with gray-green foliage but need a lot of space

We planted one artichoke a couple of years ago. It dies back in late fall only to return in the spring as a new plant with shoots containing the small chokes. Artichokes are low in calories and aid in the lowering of cholesterol because of specific compounds found in the edible parts of the plant.

Early in the spring when I put in my sweet garden peas, I also plant leafy greens such as kale, collards, lettuces, and spinach. Some of these come back the next year after their growing season is over.

Pink unripe blackberries will turn dark purplish-black when ripe

Blueberries are easy to grow when you remember to plant them in acid soil. These berries are considered a superior brain food. They are low in calories (84 calories per cup) and provide about 24 percent of the suggested daily amount of Vitamin C that the body needs.

Except for the fig trees and the artichokes that do better in areas of the garden where they have plenty of space to spread, the other nutrient-rich foods mentioned can all be planted and raised in containers. It’s so easy to grow most of these plants, why not give it a try.

If you love the cool season plants like lettuce, spinach, kale, onions, leeks, sugar snap peas, and artichokes, Valentine’s Day weekend is the time to start planting cool season crops in the Bay Area and other warmer climates.

When the early blooming varieties of apples break bud, it’s time to think cool season planting

I put in onions throughout the cool season and am rewarded with burlap bags of red onions, yellow, white, and the walla walla variety for kitchen soups and other culinary creations during the first months of the year.

My husband is building more growing boxes (4 x 4 x 3) in which we shovel amended soil, some planting mix, bone meal, blood meal, compost, and chicken manure. The soil will grow almost anything.

This is the time to also tuck some herbs in a pot for use in the kitchen

This weekend, we’re moving a couple of citrus trees and three rose bushes. I’ll feed and water and watch for the new shoots to show within a week or two if the weather stays warm. So, you see, Valentine’s Day isn’t just for lovers but also people who love to garden.

An heirloom onion flower head filled with seeds

What I love most about the onset of winter is the arrival of the seed catalogs. Armed with the newest one, I enjoy sitting on the porch, warming my bones under the pale winter sun, and reading about what I could be growing on the Henny Penny Farmette this spring–like the onions from rare, old seed that Bountiful Gardens offers in its 2014 catalog.

Bountiful Gardens is a nonprofit organization located in Willits, California (160 miles north of San Francisco). The organization has signed the Safe Seed Pledge and promises to never knowingly buy or sell seeds that are GMO (genetically modified).

The onion seed I’m eager to purchase is the Mill Creek Red Onion–a special heirloom I read about that is considered to be bolt-resistant and grows well in spring or fall. According to the catalog, the onion was bred by nursery owners Joe and Wanda Turi, who have since passed away. Thanks to the folks at Bountiful Gardens, a box of the Turi’s onions was acquired, ensuring the rare seed would be preserved and multiplied in gardens like mine and yours.

Another vegetable I want to try is the Early Purple Sprouting broccoli, a European heirloom that grows into a large plant with purple heads possessing excellent nutritional value and flavor. An August planting is recommended because the plant needs to survive through a winter to become productive.

I managed not to kill the artichoke I planted last year and, thus encouraged, I would like to grow some other varieties

The artichoke (cynara cardynculus) listing in the catalog also intrigues me. The plant won’t produce chokes during its first year, but I don’t mind. Having an abundance of chokes for farmette meals makes me want to send for the seed right now. Don’t even get me started on all the herbs I want to order and plant! I might have to turn the farmette into a farm.

The Bountiful Gardens 2014 catalog is one of the best. Not only are the listings intriguing to read, the full-color pictures are nothing short of seductive for a gardener. Offerings include heirloom, open-pollinated, untreated seeds for sustainable growing of vegetables, grains, oil and forage crops, wild trees and shrubs, berries, herbs, and flower. The catalog even offers mushroom spawn. There are also books and media products available on gardening topics, composting, permaculture, self-sufficiency, garden pests, tools, seed saving, and much more.

If you are interested in getting your own copy of the 2014 catalog, write to Bountiful Gardens, 18001 Shafer Ranch Road, Willits, CA 95490; phone 707-459-6410. Or email: bountiful@sonic.net. See, http://www.bountifulgardens.org