Start: Late March: start squash, cucumbers, and melons indoors — but only 3–4 weeks before transplanting, because cucurbits resent root disturbance with the fury of a cat in a bathtub. Sow them in biodegradable pots you can plant whole, and handle like they’re made of feelings. Keep tomatoes and peppers growing strong under lights; begin hardening off the earliest brassica seedlings.
Transplant: Mid-March (hardened off first — a week of gradually increasing outdoor time): broccoli (Packman, Belstar), cabbage, cauliflower, kale, onions, and lettuce. These are cool-season veterans that tolerate light frosts. Plant seed potatoes around St. Patrick’s Day, once the soil hits 45°F — cut large tubers into egg-sized pieces with at least two eyes each, and let the cuts cure a day before planting so they don’t rot. Trench or hill them; you’ll mound soil up as they grow.
Direct sow: carrots, beets, chard, radishes, arugula, and turnips. Carrot seed is tiny and slow — mix it with radish seed as a row marker (the radishes pop up first and mark the row so you don’t hoe your carrots in a weeding frenzy).

🌱 This Month in the Garden