Food Garden Planting Schedule
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Housebound after a 2 foot snowfall, I took some time today to make a spring planting schedule. It took a literal "snowed in" status to get me to sit down and finally do this. Each year, for the last six years, I've consulted books and websites to determine planting dates for specific food crops. I typically jotted down a smattering of "to-dos" on my wall calendar, but I never wrote up a complete schedule specifically for all my desired crops and their planting dates for an entire season. It takes a blizzard to get me this organized.Here is my food garden planting schedule for spring. It is based on an average last frost date of April 15 in USDA Zone 7.
I came up with this plan after consulting the following information sources:
- Nancy Bubel's The New Seed Starters Handbook
- The University of Maryland Master Gardener Handbook
- Grow It! Eat It! website
- Maryland Home and Garden Information Center's Fact Sheet, "Planting Dates for Vegetable Crops in Maryland
- Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Catalog & Garden Guide 2010
What I hope to do, now that I've got everything down on virtual paper, is to keep detailed notes from season to season, year to year, and adjust planting dates according to my own backyard conditions and microclimate. I also plan to watch for phenological cues--environmental goings-on that provide planting indicators for specific crops (e.g., plant parsnips after daffodils bloom).
My next task is one of geography--mapping each crop to a designated location in my garden.
15 Comments:
It's good to be organised, and sensible to make notes which can be adjusted according to your own growing conditions.
I consider myself an organized person... but not when it comes to growing food! I toss the seeds in some where around the time they need to be planted, then let them do their thing! :)
Great plan!!! Unfortunately, I was snowed in - with my seed catalog stuck at my parents house.
I've been keeping careful notes for a few years and finally made a sort of "calendar of events" that I posted in the sidebar of my blog. I think it will help me stay on top of things! The snow was good for some things then, huh?
What a great idea to use Scribd for tracking when and what to plant and where. It is amazing how our individual gardens can differ in when things can be planted. Hope you have a wonderful growing season! You must be enjoying your new house and garden very much.
Wow! An organized gardener. I just do what seems right for the moment. Maybe that's why all my plants seem to be struggling.
I can't think of a better thing to do indoors if I was snowed in - than to plan for the coming season! I might give my messy seed packets a good sorting too!
I love planning what I'm going to do in the garden. It's such fun working out what to do an when. Fingers crossed for a great year of growing ahead
Kinda makes (yet another) snowstorm welcome! Best of luck and weather for the rest of the season.
...and I like the phenological references especially. Thanks. Hadn't heard the It's a recent interest of mine. I hadn't heard the swiss chard/maple connection.
Excellent Schedule Help, its too good organized and planned,
Good luck with your planting! You seem to do it so well and know a lot about it..maybe I should start my own as well.
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Great site, I think we can all learn something from your idea.this is fantastic looking blog.
Good for you! The question now is are you managing to stick to your schedule?
Great site, we all hope for new postings!
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