Get Growing

Philip Wigul (pictured below, far right), agriculture director at Potomac Conference’s Shenandoah Valley Academy (SVA), helps run Immanuel’s Ground, a garden and greenhouse that sells food to the community and supplies SVA students with fresh produce. In his years of gardening, he’s learned more than a few things about growing a healthy garden.

Wigul shares that there isn't a one-size fits all approach to starting your garden this season. "Columbia Union covers a large area with USDA Plant Hardiness Zones ranging from 5b-9a which would affect what readers can plant and when. ... For example we are in USDA 7a with a last frost date of May 15. We start Broccoli and other members of the brassica family the first week in March in our unheated greenhouse as seedlings. Then we plant the seedlings in the ground in mid-April."

Here are five plants he says can be grown this upcoming season, even without a lot of space: broccoli, basil, cucumber, tomato and cilantro.

Wigul notes it is important to plant crops at the appropriate time in the season.