Good news! Due to the covid19 pandemic, more people are gardening this spring. Gardening offers us a chance to be "all in this together" in positive, productive ways. Gardening is accessible and hands-on rather than digital or virtual. Social distancing is relatively easy when you are gardening. And you do not have to distance yourself from your plants!

So, while health and safety challenges and restrictions are still in place, here are a few gardening suggestions to help you get the satisfaction of producing your own food and flowers, get more outdoor exercise and fresh air, attract pollinator insects and birds, and cope with the pandemic affecting everyone.

If your work is considered essential during the pandemic and you have been working from home or leaving home for work, thank you. If your essential work is caring for your family and others, thank you. If you have any time and energy when your work is over, or if your family or friends or coworkers have experienced covid19, you may find that gardening gives you comfort, distraction, and respite, as well as food.

As essential services, many grocery stores, restaurants, and food banks are striving to provide no-contact and curb-side services and to re-stock their shelves. If you have a little outdoor space, some gardening soil, a hand trowel, and a long-handled hoe, you can supplement store-bought groceries with your own home-growns. If you have more than a little outdoor space, you might be able to grow more to share with family, friends, and neighbors and to freeze or can for next winter.

Preparation: If possible, locate your garden near a reliable water supply and water your plants regularly. Whether your gardening involves pots and planters, raised beds, several rows in the yard, or part of a field, be sure to protect it from animals (cats, dogs, possums, raccoons, groundhogs, and deer).

Soil and Supplies: Remove any grass and weeds, loosen and mix in some compost if it’s heavy or compacted, and remove as many rocks as you can. Bags of garden soil are also available at garden, farm and home improvement stores, which are essential services, too. And just as grocery stores have seen extra demand for toilet paper and bread flour, some seed and plant suppliers report shortages and problems re-stocking their shelves. But if everyone buys only the seeds and plants they need for this season, there will be enough for everyone.

Gardening Tips: Late winter brought the coronavirus, and spring arrived early in Frederick County this year, with the fourth-warmest March on record. But it’s not too late to plant early vegetables like potatoes, peas, radishes, and greens like lettuce.

Try succession planting, if you can: plant part of a seed packet this week and part in the following four-six weeks to help spread your vegetable production over a longer time and avoid some pests and diseases.

New gardeners: Try some reliable vegetables first, such as potatoes, bush beans, peas, summer squash, lettuce and kale, onions from sets, cucumbers if you have a trellis or fence to support them. You may want to buy tomato and pepper plants and wire cages to support them.

Returning or current gardeners: Build on your knowledge and experience. In addition to vegetables that your family considers essential, try some new ones for variety and challenge, as well as extras to share, can, or freeze.

Kids or Grandkids: Home from school, tired of/banned from screen time, bored, they don’t have to like to eat vegetables to enjoy growing them! And it’s hands-on science and learning where food comes from! Potatoes, beans, peas, and tomatoes are satisfying to grow and pick or dig. Radishes grow fast, lettuce grows fairly fast. Summer squash can be very productive, and pumpkins develop slowly but can be a big finish for the garden season. And if long poles or branches are available, a tepee for pole beans and flower vines to climb can make a nice garden hide-out, sized for kids or adults.

Read other articles on growing herbs or vegetables

Read other articles by Blanca Poteat