If you’re like us, you’ve been receiving seed catalogs for a few weeks now. As I’ve been perusing the pages, ideas have started forming for this years garden. My fingers are starting to itch to plant seeds- but wait, there is one important question that goes along with all of these new seeds and ideas…..When would I need to start planting? Weather you’re starting a garden for the first time or you’ve had one for years, you will find yourself asking this question many times. So now that we’ve picked out our seeds, lets look at planting times.
I know of people that plant basically the same thing every year, so they have set a specific week every year to start their seeds indoors. If the weather stays cold though, the plants are stuck in little pots without any room to grow. You could sow some seeds directly in the ground and cover in a cold frame if the ground isn’t too frozen and if the seeds will grow in cooler weather. Or there is the greenhouse option, but climate control can be expensive.
Lets face it- part of gardening is learning how to work with whatever Mother Nature gives you. One year we had a late start planting the garden, which turned out to work in our favor when an early hail storm came and wiped out many of the plants people had just planted. The next year we had no hail, and barely any rain.
No matter what the weather does though, there are general guidelines you can follow to know when to plant. For example, in our area Mother’s Day is about the time you can plan to start putting a few plants outdoors. Your local extension office is a great source of information, along with the experienced gardeners around you. Below are a few on-line sources which use different methods and sources of information to give you estimate times for planting.
- All Things Plants- Calendar app
- Farmers Almanac- Planting
- The Vegetable Garden- Zone 3-4 planting
- Provident Living Today- Planting guide
So now that you know what you want to plant, and have a good idea of when to start your seeds, the next part begins the real fun – PLANTING! We start several of our vegetable plants indoors to get a jump on the growing season, so next time I’ll review some of the ways we’ve found to start seeds indoors. Until then, what are some of your rules-of-thumb when deciding planting times? 🙂
