April Newsletter 2025

Ground Up Newsletter

A composted mix of tips, plants, and the growers who tend to our gardens

April 2025 Food Bank Growers

In this month’s newsletter...

• Events Coming Up
• April in the Garden with Dianna

Artist and Editor - Bear (They/Them) FBG Vice President

Events Coming Up

Plant Sale April 5th

Join us on Saturday, April 5th from 10am-1pm at the Quimper Grange for Food Bank Growers' Spring Plant Sale! The Grange is located at 1219 Corona St, PT.

We have an exciting and bountiful presentation this Spring with many vegetable starts, berries, herbs, flowers, and other plants ready to put in the ground. We also have related items such as weeding certificates, calendula salve, hand-collected seeds for sale, and plant ID tags. 

FBG Plant sales are more than just fundraisers — they are a way to directly feed our community! Every purchase helps FBG gardens to provide fresh, healthy food to food banks and other entities. By helping with these events, you’re investing in local sustainability, supporting neighbors, and ensuring that everyone has access to nutritious, homegrown produce. 

We are also pleased to host the Master Gardner’s Plant Clinic and the WSU Seed Library at this event.

Help us to grow a stronger, more food-secure community!

Farmers Market April 12th

Port Townsend Farmers Market

Come say hello and learn more about Food Bank Growers at the local Farmer’s Market! Excited to see you there!

Spring Clean Up Work Party

Salish Coast Garden

Saturday, April 12 from 10 AM-1 PM

Salish Coast Elementary School Production Farm 

1637 Grant Street (park on the street)

We’ve been going through growing pains with a new Greenhouse and infrastructure taking our time. Please volunteer to help weed and tidy at the farm that supplies thousands of pounds of produce to schoolchildren every year! No need to sign up, just show up. Thank you!!!

Suggested packing list:

• Hat
• Layers of clothing in anticipation of variable weather conditions (if you work inside the new greenhouse, it may be warm!)
• Sunscreen, even if weather is cloudy!
• Camp chair in case you need to sit and rest
• Garden Gloves
• Cushions, etc. to make sitting and kneeling on the ground more comfortable.
• Your favorite weeding tools from home, if you have any
• Full water bottle
• Snacks

 Big Drip Campaign

Little drops of cash add up so that we can support our volunteers, gardens and schools that feed our local community.

Please Donate at Give Butter

April In the Garden

By Master Gardener Dianna Wiklund

April looks to start off cooler and wetter than average. Average temperatures in April are 52°/43°F.  We should get a little less than 2 inches of rain this month. Average is 1.73”.  Many of our gardens are still saturated from the winter rains and not ready to plant in. Raised beds become very appealing in cool damp springs. They help get our roots out of the standing water and tend to warm up faster than planting in the ground. It was damp springs like this one that started me on raising my beds up above the water level years ago. Just 8” helps a lot.

Now is the time of year when season extenders really shine. A row cover over a freshly planted bed or cloches over new transplants can make all the difference in getting a spring garden off to a good start. Cold frames and hoop houses are two other ways to bring a bit more warmth to your soil. Anything that focuses the sun's energy and reduces the wind on new transplants will help. Cold frames can easily be made from old windows or skylights. Clear plastic bottles can be used as cloches: just remove the bottom and the cap, then place over your plants. Remove when the leaves start touching the sides.

Planting:

• Potatoes - as soon as the ground dries out enough these can be planted about 6 - 8” down but above the water level. Mound dirt or mulch up on them as they grow until it is 12” above your seed potato. This will help to keep any potatoes that grow near the top from turning green.
• Peas can still be planted or transplanted now.
• Beets, spinach, carrots, dill, parsley, asian greens, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kale, radishes, leeks, lettuce are just a few of what can be directly sown in April.
• Transplanting out right now would include - onion starts, all the brassicas, and most salad greens.
• Corn - I have found that if I start my corn in the last two weeks of April in compostable tubes or pots then I can transplant it out in May during the brief warm period we usually get before June gloom sets in. This gives my corn crop a bit of a boost and I may actually get to eat corn in September. I have also taken to putting a greenhouse plastic hoop frame over the corn starts for added warmth. 
• Winter Gardening - For those who are really thinking ahead, April is the time to put in Swiss chard, Parsley and Parsnips for harvest next fall and winter.

Harvesting:

• Asparagus will start poking up this month, remember to only cut shoots that are larger than a pencil.
• Sprouting broccoli is really starting to put out now and is a welcome addition to our spring menus.
• Many, many greens are popping up all over. They can bring delightful new flavors to all our meals, not just salads.

Garden work: 

• It is slug time again. Remove slugs from the garden with daily/nightly slug walks. If we are diligent now, there will be fewer later.
• Set up irrigation and check over for needed repairs. Getting an early start on this will help when May comes along with its two weeks of warm dry weather.
• If you haven’t already, turn under or cut down your cover crops. Using them as green mulch can help warm up your soil as they decompose.

April is a time of hope and beauty. As the bulbs that have slept underground erupt into a glorious display of flowers, so will the seeds we are sowing spring up into the nutritious vegetables we want to enjoy all summer long. 

Remember to stop and breathe in your garden, look for the joy and beauty that is the life of a gardener. 

Happy Gardening,

Dianna Wiklund 🌻

 Everyone is Welcome

We’re so grateful for our volunteers! Feel free to join us and explore opportunities to grow, glean, or help remotely. Just let us know what interests you, and we’d love to get you involved!

Volunteer Sign Up

 Thank you FBG Community!