When to Plant? A Complete Guide For Your Own Garden
I see questions pop up daily on social media asking, “when can I plant my seeds outside?” “When do I start my tomatoes in the house?” “When can I harden them off?” Today I’m going to share with you how I created my own complete guide on planting and how you can make your very own!
Why would you want to make your own planting calendar when there are so many garden books out there with guides to planting printed right in them? One word. Microclimates. One person’s growing timeline may or may not work for you and your garden. There are so many factors to take into account when getting your precious seeds in the ground. I have created a way to pinpoint exactly when they need to be planted and it’s not as hard as you may think. Are you ready to get your planting guide started?
In order to create your personalized planting guide you need a few pieces of information. The first is your first and last frost dates. Try to find a neighbor who gardens that you can ask. Write down the dates they tell you. More than one neighbor’s answer is even better. Then go to google and type in your city and state and the average frost dates should pop up. Be sure and write down all these dates - I prefer to keep a garden journal so all of my information is in an easy to find place. Next you are going to want to write down your high and low temps each day for as many days as possible near the time of the frosts. This will help you get an even more accuate frost date. Be sure and note if it frosts or not until you are well beyond your projected last frost date.
The next piece of information you need is how many days between your estimated or average frost dates. For example I had one season where my last frost of spring was June 24th and my first fall frost was August 28th. That equals a total of 65 days of frost free growing in my garden. Why do you need this number? This number will help you determine the best plants to grow in your garden. I choose fast maturing varieties and cold tolerant plants to extend my grow time as much as possible. Veggies like squash, tomatoes, peppers and corn all need a long season to mature. This number tells me I need to change my garden plan if I want to harvest vegetables like these. I try to keep the varieties I grow below 65 days to harvest as much as possible. These plants are the ones I can count on for staples in my garden.
Begin by using someone else’s planting calendar that is as close to your own frost dates as possible. I started out by using the planting guide in one of my favorite garden books Crockets Victory Garden. Here is a link to my favorite homesteading and garden books. From there I created a planting calendar for my garden. You can download it here for Free! My projected last frost date is June 1 and USDA zone 5 ( though I most commonly plant perennials for zone 4). I’d love for you to follow along with me as I plant for the garden season! I often post to Facebook when I am planting new things! My own planting guide changes a little bit each year as I learn new information or find better ways of planting. For example Jag from Daisy Creek Farms with Jag Singh says you should plant peppers VERY early to give them the head start they need. I did a pepper trial two years in a row starting some in February and others in march… guess which plants won? Yep. The February planted peppers. Not only did they grow better they also outperformed the later planted ones. So I changed the official planting time in my planting calendar.
Okay let’s get back to building your very own planting guide. The rest of the information you are going to need is going to come off of the back of the seed packages themselves. Look at the descriptions on the back of each packages and make notes. The details you are looking for are words like annual, perennial, frost hardy and frost sensitive. Often times seed packages will even tell you when to start the seeds. For example many flowers say 6-8 weeks before your last frost date. Unfortunately some seed packages are vague and say things like “plant in early spring” or “plant in late fall” …. what does that even mean when for you? Hang on tight I will explain some ways to figure this out in a moment. *Note if the seed package doesn’t tell you when to start the plant sometimes you can type in the variety into google search and you will be able to find more information onlinehere for Free!. I would look at several sites to get an accurate planting time.
Now that you’ve gathered all of your information (I encourage you to keep track of your temperatures several years in a row to establish an average and more pinpointed frost date) it’s time to start building your calendar!
Purchase or print out some calendar pages like these. Then begin by plugging in your facts starting with the first and last frost dates. Count backwards from your last spring frost date 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks and 10 weeks and make notes of these dates on your calendar. Most plants started from seed will fall into these timeframes. If you would like to plant a fall garden count back 4 weeks and 6 weeks from your first expected fall frost and mark those dates on the calendar. For me the second week of august is the best time to direct sow cold loving crops for my fall garden.
Second fill in which specific plants to start when. So if the basil package suggests starting it indoors 6 weeks before my last frost I will write basil under the 6 week mark on my calendar. This will take some time to go through each crop you plan to grow, but it is so worth it! Be sure to note if you are planting inside or direct seeding outdoors.
After you’ve added each of your crops to your calendar you can add in transplant dates. This is the time when the plants will make their way into their into your garden. Some crops are ok to be planted outside before your last frost date for example onions. Others like tomatoes need to be planted outside after your last expected spring frost. (pssst there is a way to cheat the frost dates a little… keep reading to find out how)
Lastly you can plug in succession planting - which means you can plant short rows of lettuce more frequently instead of planting one long row all at once. So you can mark things like bunching onions (we call them spring onions), lettuce, radishes and other greens every two weeks so that you continue to get a fresh harvest all season long! Don’t worry if this part sounds too complicated for you one planting is a great place to start! Just leave out the succession planting and challenge yourself another year.
There are some plants that really don’t need a specific date but are planted more by the signs of the season. For example Peas can be planted as soon as the snow is off the garden in late March or early April. So I made a little note on my calandar that tells me to watch out of this sign.
Be sure and observe what is happening in your garden daily. These observations may dramatically impact when you can plant certain seeds and it may differ greatly from the information found in garden books, online or on the back of the seed packages. Here is a link to a video I made a couple of years ago which tells the story about how I learn when to plant sunflower seeds in my garden.
Wait! Before you go there is one last thing!!
I told you there was a way to cheat the frost dates! This is commonly called extending your growing season. There are many many ways to do this, but for now let’s just talk about one simple way. Extending your growing season can be as simple as covering your crops with 6ml greenhouse plastic (if you are in a cold northern climate like me). You can either make a single row cover or you can make a whole structure called a hoop house. With a hoop house you can plant multiple rows of crops similar to the way you would in a greenhouse. By adding a layer of cover you buy yourself a minimum of two extra weeks on either end of the growing season - so one month total! That’s huge when your growing season is as short as mine is. This ensures your tender little plant babies don’t get nipped by frost and your can rest easy at night.
Be sure to subtract two weeks from the crops on your growing calendar if you plan to plant them under cover and make a note of the new planting date on your calendar!
I hope you found this guide to creating your own planting calendar helpful.
Learn and Grow
Your Favorite Crazy Plant Lady
