Even though the leaves are off the trees and there may be snow on the ground, gardening is still on our minds here at Deep Roots. In fact, now is the best time to be thinking about our gardens, as some things need to be planned long before the first plants poke up from the ground.

Join Deep Roots Project Sunday, February 23 for a free workshop at the Oak Park Main Library at 3pm in the first floor Community Room! We allowed extra time at the end to advise people who need help with their garden planning.

Preparing your beds, sowing spring seeds outdoors, planting seedlings

• Learn to prepare your soil with compost

• Know which additional fertilizer each crop needs and how to apply it

• Learn to plant cool weather veggie seeds directly into your outdoor beds. Easy to grow spring veggies are lettuce, spinach, arugula, beets, carrots, dill, peas, and radish. If you want to plant a lot of these veggies seeds are the affordable ways to go.

• Learn to get a large harvest of fresh salad greens using the “Cut and come again” method

• Harvesting cool weather veggies and planning the warm weather veggies that will soon take their place.

• Planting warm weather seedlings like tomatoes, peppers, basil, cucumbers and squash

• How to protect your squash seedlings from the squash vine borer moth and caterpillar. It can kill the whole plant!

• How to prevent powdery mildew on your cucumbers and get bigger harvests.

• Where to plant marigolds, nasturtiums and other companion plants that repel pests and attract beneficial insects.