Getting Out Into Our a Garden State Garden

Kids in the garden from the 2016 White House Garden

Has there been enough warm weather and green shoots to get you out in the garden?

April is a lot of clean up for me, along with turning over the soil, planting seeds, moving plants, adding new plants, and planning my vegetable garden.

Henry Rangkuti wrote me back when it was cold and said that he stumbled upon an article on the site about vegetable gardening. 

Henry passed along two recommended links: motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/10-best-garden-crops-for-beginners and on his own site gardeningjourney.com/vegetable-gardening-for-beginners/.

Of course, we love our Garden State and many people plant flowers and ornamentals. And we love our Jersey tomatoes and backyard vegetable gardens too.

I keep my own gardening calendar records every year where I record the appearances, blooms and harvest times. They do vary year to year, but most years I can see a pattern for that year. Perhaps it is a warm spring or mild winter and we are a week ahead of last year. I record frosts and freezes.

The Old Farmer's Almanac and other sites online will give you the aggregated planting calendar dates. You can check your local microclimate at almanac.com/gardening/planting-calendar/NJ - but don't be too surprised if we still get a snowstorm or freeze or frost that doesn't agree with years past. 

This month is a good time to be planting lettuce and other salad greens outside. It's the time to have our tomato seeds sprout inside, but we need to wait for May to move them into the garden.

We are the Garden State and not the farming state, but New Jersey is still home to more than 9,071 farms covering 715,057 acres of farmland. The state is among the leaders in many forms of agricultural production.  For example, New Jersey ranks: 5th in blueberry production, 3rd in cranberry production, 3rd in spinach, 3rd in bell peppers, 4th in peach production.  The state also produces an abundance of tomatoes, corn, apples, strawberries, potatoes, hay, soybeans and nursery stock.

New Jersey promotes its outstanding agricultural industry through its Jersey Fresh campaign. Jersey Fresh fruits and vegetables must pass a grading program to ensure they are the highest quality.