When to Start Planting Your Garden

When to start planting your garden.

Yes! The snow is melting and it’s time to start thinking about planting your garden. Of course it depends on your climate, but the third week of February is typically when to start planting your garden. As a general rule your early to mid-season vegetables need to be planted as early as February or March. When to start planting your garden also depends entirely on where you live and what it is you want to grow. Hardy plants can survive cold temperature and some frost, which is why they are always the first plants to go in the ground as soon as the ground thaws. Crops like beans, cucumbers, melons, and squash can be planted after the average last day of frost, because of their sensitivity to freezing temperatures. Carrots, lettuce, peas, and radishes are heartier and can be planted 8-10 weeks before the average last frost for a spring harvest.

When to start planting your garden is always a quandary with me, but usually my lack-of-wanting-to-be-inside marks the point of when my hands crave being the in soil and I will start planting my seedlings. Whenever “spring fever” hits in your area, planting is sure to follow for garden lovers. I will start planting my more tender plants that cannot withstand frost in the windowsill indoors and plant carrots and lettuce in my greenhouse. This work out great because I can have a home-grown salad by late May or early June.

Tomatoes and peppers, broccoli, eggplants, cauliflower, melons and squashes can all be started successfully indoors and well as herbs and flowers. All can benefit from the controlled environment of indoor seed starting. On my windowsill sits a long plastic dish that I can’t stop peeking into to see if the seedlings have awoken and their tiny green arms stretching out to greet me.

Some crops should not be however be started indoors because they don’t transplant well. Experts would not recommend starting the following inside:
   • Root, tuber or bulb crops (beets, radishes, turnips, onions, potatoes, carrots, etc.)
   • Leafy greens (lettuces, spinach, cabbage, chards).

These cool season plants can withstand planting directly outside even before the weather fully warms. Also things you are going to plant in large numbers should wait until they can be planted into the garden soil. The following are usually grown in sizable quantities:
  • Corn
  • Peas
  • Beans

If your area has a short growing season for crops like corn or tomatoes, look for varieties that have a short days-to-maturity period.