March 2025 E-Magazine
The recent thaw and warmup is certainly welcome after that cold snap. Our continental climate means we rarely have a gradually unfolding Spring.
Instead we have climate whiplash, see-sawing back and forth between cold and warm - or hot – days. It can be tempting to get outside and start planting on early warm days, but it’s best to wait until the timing is right.
Now is a good time to start some vegetable and flower seeds indoors if you live on the Front Range. I use simple shop lights and heat mats on some shelving in my office where I can see what’s going on everyday. If you live in the mountains the timing will be different of course, since planting out is usually 2-3 weeks later. You don’t want to plant seeds too early or your starts will be leggy and weak when it's time to plant.
In his Q&A column this month Keith Funk discusses timing for lots of March gardening tasks. I’ve also included a piece, Seed Sowing 101, by Penn Parmenter who lives near Westcliffe at 8000’ and has her own high altitude seed company, Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds. When I spoke with Penn recently she told me about the sad and unexpected death of Casey Piscura, a young rising star in regenerative agriculture and seed breeding from Carbondale, CO. Her tribute is below.
A reader wrote to us asking about how to use biochar in his garden. I passed the question on to Keith Funk but he had no direct experience with using it either and I don’t like to pass on untested gardening info from the web. Nevertheless, we both did some research and after reaching out to some Boulder Culinary Gardener Group friends who have experimented with biochar we put a piece together. I’d be interested to hear from any readers who have experience using it as a soil additive.
We also have another short plant portrait on Genista Lydia by Marilyn Raff.
Enjoy the warm-up and hopefully some solid spring moisture. In the garden is a good place to be as this especially wild and edgy year progresses.
– Jane Shellenberger
Seed Sowing 101
By Penn Parmenter
Seed starting for the upcoming season is now underway! If you’ve never started your own seedlings, this is the time to do it. It’s fun, inexpensive, and the germination process is a kick in the pants.
Besides seeds, you will need a soilless seed starting mix, a flat, 6-pack cells or other small pots. I reuse many of mine year after year.
You can find organic soilless seed starting mixes all ready to go or you can purchase coir and perlite and make your own. Coir is coconut fiber and is great at holding moisture. Although it can be used alone, I mix it with perlite to stretch it. Be sure to buy plain horticultural perlite (not from a name brand like Miracle-Gro which likely contains chemical fertilizer intended to hook your plant). The plain coir comes in an inexpensive small brick; you add water and it expands like crazy. I wet mine with diluted liquid kelp to give the seeds a little nutrition. You can save it and reuse it as well.
If I am using my preferred homemade, deep wooden flats, I use filler in the bottom half to stretch my medium because I grow so many plants. You can use leaf mold or, like me, decomposed pine needles from under Piñon trees. I add the coir and perlite on top; the roots love to reach down into the pine needles. You can also just use the mix without any filler.
Casey Piscura1985-2025
Tribute by Penn Parmenter
We lost a young visionary and rising star in the high altitude seed breeding movement last month when Casey Piscura took his own life. A passionate produce and seed farmer on Sunfire Ranch in Carbondale, Casey provided resilient seed to small farms and home gardeners in Colorado and across the country.
One of his specialties was breeding short-season, nutrient dense, delicious tomatoes.
He founded Seed Peace, a non-profit dedicated to providing affordable produce to food banks in his surrounding community, teaching young farmers the wonders of regenerative farming methods and seed breeding research.
Plant Portrait: Genista Lydia - Zone 5-9
By Marilyn Raff
A floriferous low-mounding deciduous shrub native to the Mediterranean region, Lydia thrives beautifully in many parts of Colorado. The name comes from the ancient city of Lydia, which flourished in the 6th and 7th centuries BCE.
Full sun works best. It has slender, arching branches with needle-like, green glossy foliage, which adds to its visual appeal. The electric small yellow flowers explode midspring into summer smothering the plant like 4th of July fireworks!
I’ve grown this shrub for thirty years. Its height is two feet, with a spread of almost 3-4 feet. Lydia adapts to a wide range of soils, some a little rocky but it wants good drainage. A good combination uses pea gravel, clay, and a small amount of compost.
Once established, this nearly no-care shrub is disease and deer resistant. It tolerates heat and drought, perfect for difficult low water spots.
The Promising Benefits of Biochar
By Keith Funk & Jane Shellenberger
Biochar is biomass (wood, leaves, straw, manure, or other biosolids) heated at high temperatures without oxygen. This process, known as pyrolysis, concentrates carbon in a form that is very resistant to biological decomposition. When applied to soil or added to products like concrete, a large fraction of its carbon content is sequestered for centuries. The ancient practice of using charcoal in the soil dates back thousands of years, notably in the Amazon Basin, where indigenous peoples mixed charcoal with organic waste.
Biochar looks like charcoal, is very porous, has a high pH and carbon content. While biochar is not a fertilizer, research indicates it can help retain nutrients in the soil. Its charged surface and high surface area allows it to absorb and hold on to nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon. Studies show Biochar can remove heavy metals from contaminated soil, increase its water-holding capacity, and provide a stable habitat for beneficial soil microorganisms.
Brett KenCairn, the City of Boulder's nature-based climate solutions team leader, describes biochar as a “microbe hotel.” He explains: “Biochar has two features that make it perfect for the garden. First, it has a mild electric attraction to water molecules, drawing water to itself in soil. Second, the original plant structure of whatever the biochar is made out of is preserved during pyrolysis, creating a perfect home for beneficial microbes to move into.”
Spring into Gardening: March Q&A
By Keith Funk
Q: Is it time to clean up my perennial beds?
A: Clear away any remaining winter debris and weeds, being careful not to damage new sprouts. Use your pruners or a lawn mower to chop up the removed debris and reapply as a mulch to perennial and shrub beds to retain moisture and suppress weeds.
Once the soil is dry enough to work, this is a great time of year to dig in a 2-3” layer of compost and well aged manure into the vegetable garden.
