Frog Song Day

This appeared in the March 19 edition of The Fish Wrap

On Regenerative Life Farm, we celebrate the day the frogs start singing. It’s one of the first signs of spring and makes us think about getting plants into the ground! Starting our plants early allows us to extend the season and get popular veggies to our customers before they are available elsewhere. The last frost is usually around April 15, but the frogs make us think local conditions are ready for planting.

One way to get a jump on Spring is to start plants indoors. But there are challenges - it’s a false environment and you have to supply everything that usually comes from Mother Nature - light, water, temperature, soil. Plants started indoors can get root bound or leggy and they can suffer from the shock of transplant. Root vegetables are usually direct-seeded. We plant one of our favorite vegetables, Beets, as soon as the frogs sing and keep them going all summer!

When it’s time to direct seed or transplant, it’s time to prepare the garden beds. We pull off the tarps which have been warming the soil and killing unwanted plants. Any remaining plants need to be carefully hoed, then compost added. When the seed and transplants are in place we use row-covers this early in the season to hold in as much warmth as possible.

Besides Frog Song day, the first robin and other migrating birds are harbingers of spring. We celebrated Frog Song day a couple weeks ago, but they stopped singing during a cold snap with nasty wind. A Robin in the garden inspired us to prepare some beds for planting and transplanting. Becca was hoeing some grass and last year’s potato plants from a bed that was getting ready to be home to Broccoli when she heard the frogs start up again! Spring is here!