The Marigold Potager – A Zone 3 Prairie Garden

This month is a bit busier with seeding and taking cuttings. Plus a bit of transplanting, if your seedlings are of a good size.

Unless specifically mentioned, these timings work all across Canada, in most all of the gardening zones.

Vegetables To Start This Month

Cool Season – (love cool weather, bolt in hot weather (go to seed)

• Bok Choy/Pak Choi & other Asian Greens (late March for us zone 3’s and 4’s)
• Broccoli – I like the stems better than the florets, so I grow Artwork (broccolini/spouting broccoli)
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Kale
• Onions
• Scallions
• Shallots
• Spinach

If you want to start cool season seedlings to plant out at the end of April, early May, you will need to cover them with a frost blanket or grow in a cold frame till the hard frosts are over. They like cool weather, but can get frost damage.

Alternately, you can direct sow these into the garden 2 to 4 weeks before your last frost date, if you prefer to not muck about with pots and such. That is April 20th to May 4th (ish) here in Central Alberta. March 31st to April 14th (ish) on the west coast.

What NOT to sow now

I need to mention this… one thing not to start now is cucumbers. Cucumbers have similar growth habits, similar foliage, similar needs to squash.

Like squash, they prefer to be direct sown into warm soil. They germinate in 3 to 5 days and grow very quickly. If you want a headstart on them, please sow them no more 3 weeks before planting them out. The small ones will transplant well, if the roots are not disturbed, while the large ones suffer from transplant shock. Direct sown will still give you cucumbers in 6 weeks time. They do not take long : )

If you have started them already, I would just compost them. I know this is hard to do, I really do, but they will not thrive started this early in the season.

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Warm Season Crops – (love hot weather, need long days and heat to thrive)

• Celery
• Eggplants
• Peppers
• Luffa Gourds
• Tomatoes

If you did not start the first 3 last month, you can absolutely still do it now.

Tomatoes can be started anytime this month. In warmer zones (5 – 8), I would wait till mid to end month, perfect size to plant out in May. Even June, if it happens to be a cold start to summer.

In our colder areas, some prefer to start at the beginning of the month and transplant into larger pots a couple of times to give them a head start as our season is so short. Others choose shorter season tomatoes (50 to 70 days) and start them mid to end month.

Some of my favourite short season tomatoes are (these are all heirlooms):

• Early Annie (65 to 70 days) – medium sized slicer tomato that tastes fantastic. Determinate.
• Kalinka (50 days) – Larger sized slicer. Determinate.
• Manitoba (65 days) – has been a favourite for decades. Determinate.
• Russian Saskatchewan (60 days) – Medium slicer, great for pots or gardens. Compact determinate.
• Sasha’s Altai (65 days) – The best seller at my wee greenhouse. Great tomato. Determinate.
• Stupice (50 days) – This one has a huge fan club, is a best seller all across Canada. Indeterminate.
• I have also grown Beaverlodge, Bison, Gill’s All Purpose, Grushovka, Harbinger, Latah and liked them all.

• Red Fig (70 days) – Indeterminate. This one was my favourite cherry on the island. Loved the flavour and the productivity. Did not like it here on the prairies. I would say that they do not love the high summer temps we get, are more suited to a temperate summer, cooler summer, humid area… than the hot, dry prairies.

• Fargo’s Yellow Pear (65 days) – determinate. My mother-in-law’s favourite tomato. This short season yellow pear tomato is thin skinned, sweet, and so easy to grow. These pear shaped tomatoes are big and juicy, flavourful, and abundant. My mother-in-law loves them in salads and on their own, as did my mom. I am not a yellow tomato lover usually, but must say, these were actually pretty amazing this year!
• Fargo is a bush type, a determinate, stays compact, so is great for small spaces, pots and garden beds, too. The bush was loaded with tomatoes from mid-July on till the end of summer.

• Pink Berkeley Tie Dye (70 days) – Indeterminate. One of the best tasting tomatoes ever. Wins taste trials hands down. A beefsteak that is short season and a super great producer.

Herbs

• Agastache/Hyssop
• Basil. I am growing lettuce leaf for myself and Thai Basil for my son, who took up cooking during the pandemic and still loves to make fabulous meals when time permits.
• Lavender
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Sage

Flowers To Start This Month

Snapdragons – I recently learned from a Zone 4 TikTok flower grower that I follow (@upnorthflowers) that Snaps come in 4 different flowering groups. Flowering according to different day lengths, light intensity, and temperatures. Huh! Here is a link to read up on that if it interests you.

What I know is that I need to choose snaps that bloom earlier in the year. I seem to have been choosing varieties here that do not bloom till late summer so do not get to enjoy them for very long. I must have done different ones in Nanaimo as I had blooms all summer long, starting pretty early in the season.

• Group 2 Snaps to start now for blooms in late summer – Chantilly, Avignon, Costa, Maryland. Plant out in March/April depending on weather in your zone (they like the cool temps). If I were to try these, I would plant them out in late April or early May here in my Zone 3 garden, with a frost cover.
• Group 2/3 Snaps bloom in the late summer/fall. Start seeds May, plant out in July – Cannes, Opus, Monaco.
• Group 3/4 are a main season crop – Potomac, Rocket, Madame Butterfly. Start this month, plant out in spring, flower in summer. (these are the ones that I am sticking to this year.)

Sow 2 or 3 seeds per cell, do not separate at planting. Great info, eh? I have started snaps from seed many times, with great success (including the tray I dropped on it’s head last year- still grew just fine), but did not know about the varieties and timings. Hope you find this as helpful as I did.

• Calendula
• China Asters
• Cosmos, if not direct sowing
• Marigolds
• Dahlias – seed or tuber
• Strawflowers
• Sweet Peas
• Yarrow

If you are on the west coast, you can direct sow sweet peas into your garden this month. Wait for a dry, sunny day, pop in your seeds. No need to soak or prestart. They will come up when the day length and heat is just right.

In our zone 3 prairie gardens, we can direct sow them in late March or early April, depending on the year.

Welcome March!

Ours came in like a lamb, hopefully the saying does not come true… no lions, please! Tanja