There is no single guide to Proper planting time. When it’s prime tomato planting time in Georgia it is still weeks away from tomato planting time in Maine!
However most of the U.S. can plant at least a few of the cool weather garden vegetables in March.
Find your Last Average Frost date, Last Frost Date Calculated By Your Zip Code
Beans (southern states)
Beetroot
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Carrots (less than perfect soil? Plant the shorter fat type carrots)
Corn (southern states)
Endive
Leeks
Lettuce
Onion sets
Parsnip
Peas
Potato (not sweet potato’s)
Radicchio
Radish
Shallots
Spinach
Turnip
Before you buy or plant any vegetable Know the length of your growing season. Don’t plant a pepper that requires 175 days to maturity if your growing season is only 180 day’s. If you do you will be sadly disappointed with it’s performance. Hint: Add 7-10 days to the seed package ‘day’s to harvest’ to allow for the time required for your seed to germinate and start growing.
Proper timing is even more important when planning a fall garden crop. To insure a good fall crop, first subtract day till harvest from your first average frost date. Then subtract another 21 day to arrive at your proper planting date for your fall vegetable crop. A good rule of thumb is plant fall crops about the first of July for a good fall garden harvest.
My goal this year is to have fresh, vine ripe, home grown watermelon and home grown pork ribs for our 4th of July BBQ.
Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be shy. Leave me your comment(s)
Great info! And thanks for visiting and liking my blog. As you can tell, I’m still figuring all this gardening stuff out. 🙂
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Another fabulously informative article. Thanks so much!
Wendy
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Hi Wendy
Thank for you kind comment on my humble little blog and for finding time to visit
~~ Pobept
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We still pretty much stick to the adage “plant when you can sit on the ground and your bum stays warm and dry” which around here – southern Ontario- is usually around Victoria Day (May 24th) or later. We still get occasional frost up until that point. I’m still learning some of the exceptions for early planting. Things that my parents knew, but I’ve forgotten.
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Reblogged this on agropedia and commented:
A nice blog and a great link to a Last Frost Date by ZIP calculator as well. Many thanks to T&C Gardening.
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Very nice blog sir. I especially enjoyed the picture of Mr. Bacon. 🙂 I personally am aiming for a Romanesque garden of Tomatoes, Basil, and Cucumbers. It seems intermingling these varieties helps quite a bit. Much like the Native American combination of corn, beans, and squash. Our short but intense growing season in Bend, OR also helps in producing our numerous berries.
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As a teenager I lived for a short time in Falls City, OR not that far from Bend. I intermix cucumbers with corn sometime as a space saver.
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Cool! I hope you enjoyed Oregon while you were here. While I’m “from” here, I grew up overseas. Some of the best farmers at getting the most out of their small landholdings or garden plots I ever saw were in Sri Lanka. Absolutely amazing what they could do with a tiny piece of land. Hope you continue to enjoy my blog, I’m hoping to get some links to other bloggers including yourself up this weekend…
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I will be passing this along to my mother – who is an avid gardener 🙂
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I like your blog, glad I found it.
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