Hello, and welcome to the March edition of Food Gardening Magazine. It’s still chilly here at Food Gardening Network headquarters, but the days are definitely longer, and soon I’ll be able to dig into the garden. Some of you may already have soil warm enough to plant early spring vegetables.

With the first day of spring coming up this month, along with more sunshine and warmer temperatures, March is a busy month. Even if you aren’t outdoors in the garden yet, this is the month to start seeds indoors and finalize those garden plans.

What can you plant? That’s where the March edition of Food Gardening Magazine begins. We’re looking at six vegetables that you can plant in the ground as soon as you’re able. There’s a lot more in this issue, too! We have six feature articles, an exclusive special guide to home remedies, and the 2024 Food Gardening Network Spring Garden Planning Calendar!

Plus, we’ll explore three garden guides and go in-depth with articles on broccoli, beets, and rosemary! Here’s what’s growing in this edition.

Food Gardening with Amanda articles—Food Gardening Network’s Senior Editor and Producer Amanda MacArthur is one fabulous food gardener! She’s always cooking, planting, or experimenting in the garden. Better yet, most of her content includes companion videos to show you, not just tell you, exactly what to do. Check out these helpful articles from Amanda this month:

• 6 Vegetables to Plant in March: If your soil is workable, these six vegetables can go into the ground right away.
• How to Start Seeds Indoors: Grow Kits vs. DIY Methods: What’s better? We tried starting seeds with a grow kit, grow lights, and heating mat. And we tried the old-fashioned method with homemade “pots,” some soil, and a windowsill. Here’s what worked best for us.
• 17 Home-Grown Home Remedies: Colds, flu, upset stomach, insomnia, headaches, anxiety … there’s no shortage of minor ailments. Lucky for us, there are plenty of herbal remedies easily made at home with ingredients straight from your garden.
• How to Preserve Peeled Garlic in a Delicious Garlic Confit: We may be of the opinion that there’s no such thing as too much garlic, but sometimes there is too much garlic to use all at once. In the case of a large garlic harvest, Garlic Confit is a delicious way to make the most of your abundance.
• The Garden Witch: This article comes from our sister publication, GreenPrints Magazine. In this story, writer Sheila Allen shares an amusing story about her new neighbor, who just might be a witch.
• Master Gardener’s Book of Home-Grown Home Remedies Special Guide: Don’t miss this Food Gardening Network exclusive! Many home remedies have been tested and have proven benefits. For example, peppermint really does aid in relieving headaches, and turmeric is an excellent anti-inflammatory. Now you can get a complete collection of home remedies that grow right in your garden.
• 2024 Spring Garden Planning Calendar: Spring is an exciting time for us gardeners. We go from the blustery, cool days of early March to the summer-like temperatures of June, and watch our little seedlings turn into full-grown plants! There’s a lot to keep up with, but it’s so much easier to stay organized with a dedicated calendar like this one.
• How to Grow and Dry Your Own Chamomile Tea: Chamomile tea is a popular bedtime beverage with a reputation for being a natural sleep aid. While harvesting chamomile is a bit labor intensive, once dried, you can store your garden-fresh chamomile for up to a year. That’s a lot of tea!!

And this issue of Food Gardening Magazine includes details on three featured foods this month—concurrently with publishing this issue of our magazine, we’re also publishing and updating three gardening guides on broccoli, beets, and rosemary. As a premium member of Food Gardening Network, you get full access to the magazine and these gardening guides:

Broccoli: Broccoli is an annual cold weather crop that can be sown in spring or fall. In many areas, you can harvest broccoli into December. To learn more, check out Broccoli: America’s Favorite Vegetable.

Beets: You can’t beat beets! Cook ’em, enjoy them grated raw in a salad, pickle them, and don’t forget that beet greens are delicious. Learn more about growing and eating beets in Beautiful Beets!

Rosemary: Rosemary works as a companion plant in vegetable patches, in containers as an attractive house or patio plant, as a ground cover, in kitchen and perennial beds, spilling from a window box, or even stabilizing a slope. It’s even easy to grow, making it a great starter plant for a new herb garden. That’s just the beginning, though. Rosemary is just as versatile in the kitchen. Learn more about this tasty, aromatic herb in Rosemary, the All-Purpose Herb!

In this edition of Food Gardening Magazine, you’ll find Gardening Guide Close-Ups that focus on broccoli, beets, and rosemary to help get you started with these three foods and our gardening guides. These articles give you valuable tips and advice about these three foods, and you’ll have instant access to the premium gardening guides themselves, too. Be first to read these Gardening Guide Close-Ups and get a head start on how to grow and use these foods:

• Making the Most of Broccoli Growing Season: From Seed to Soup: Broccoli works as a raw addition to salads. It’s a spectacular stir-fry ingredient. You can roast it or use it to make a mouth-watering cream of broccoli soup. And it all begins in the garden.
• Beet Companion Plants: What to Grow With Beets: Pests on your beets, left unchecked, can damage and destroy your developing plants. However, good companion plants can help attract beneficial insects and deter pests, from tiny insects to hungry herbivorous mammals like rabbits and deer.
• How to Dry Fresh Rosemary and Use it in Oils, Teas, and More: Rosemary is relatively easy to grow, having few demands and few disease or pest problems. It has a pungent flavor and a pine-like scent that’s popular in many culinary traditions. And once you know how to dry fresh rosemary, you can take advantage of this aromatic herb any time of the year.

And then there are the recipes you’ll find in these gardening guides! Here are just two of my favorites that are tasty, unique, and easy to make:

• Creamy Broccoli Walnut Salad: This Creamy Broccoli Walnut Salad has something to please every one of your tastebuds. Crunchy, creamy, slightly sweet but also tangy, and a little salty—this salad is also packed with nutrition. It’s hearty enough to serve as a main dish, but also makes a delicious side.
• Beet Brownies: Sweet, smooth, and arguably good for you, this recipe takes advantage of the natural color and velvety texture of beet purée. Of course, browned butter and extra chunks of chocolate don’t hurt in making this brownie super delicious, either.

We’re also happy to announce there’s a new tab on our site for Gardening Kits! This is where Gold Members will find:

• Printable Garden Planning Calendar Kits
• Printable Garden Planning Kits
• Printable Recipe Card Kits

Check them out now, and download your favorites!

I hope you enjoy the March 2024 issue of Food Gardening Magazine as much as we’ve enjoyed growing it. We’re so happy to have you here! Now let’s start planning that garden!

Happy harvesting—and happy eating!

Christy Page
Editor & Publisher

P.S. Please enjoy this issue of Food Gardening Magazine, and let me know what you think about it by commenting below with your feedback! Your input is valuable to us and can help us make improvements.