“GREAT PARTNER FOR OUR BUSINESS.”

Trays of lettuce are among the many vegetables for sale at Summerfield Feed Mill.

switch.Bankof OakRidge.com field where his great-grandparents grew tobacco. He’s already started his early garden on the same land, setting out potatoes, onions, radishes, beets and some leafy greens. The lettuce “is starting to pop up,” he said in a recent interview.

Early crops such as broccoli and cabbage lack the vibrant colors of summertime tomatoes and yellow squash. But for what they lack in pizazz, they make up for with heartiness and longevity. Peeden is still eating potatoes he planted a year ago and has stored in his garage since last summer.

Donald Hall bought enough potatoes from Summerfield Feed Mill last week to plant a 60-foot row in his garden, along with peas, cabbage and onions. He and his wife, Mika, will enjoy the veg- etables in the spring and summer as they’re waiting for their tomatoes, beans, corn, cantaloupe and other hot-weather vegetables to come in.

“I try to stagger it so it’s not all coming off the vine at the same time,” said Hall, who learned gardening from his father and grandfather. “I do exactly what they did.”

Planting an early garden requires some tedious preparation, such as clearing out leaves and other debris from the winter – and doing a soil test to ensure your crops have the nutrition they need.

“Prepare vegetable beds by in- corporating soil amendments, lime and fertilizer,” preferably by the end of March and based on the results of the garden’s soil test, according to a post on the website of the N.C. State Extension program.

Last week, Summerfield’s Kathy Rooney bought a variety of lettuces, Swiss chard and curly mustard for gardens that she and her husband, Doug, are going to plant.

“It gives us a month of fresh greens and protein for dinner every night,” she said.

Once the plants are established, the couple will pour a 10% solution of household ammonia on them “to keep the slug population down,” Rooney said. “The cats keep the rabbits away and I use wireless deer fencing to discourage the larger lettuce predators.”

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At right, Summerfield Feed Mill’s Arlene Neal weighs potatoes that Donald Hall planted in his garden. Hall said he learned gardening from his father and grandfather, and does “exactly what they did.”