GardenDesk: When to Plant Each Vegetable in the Garden

April 06, 2011

When to Plant Each Vegetable in the Garden

The biggest question that new gardeners have this time of year is when to plant each vegetable in the garden. Most of the time people are looking for an actual date, but garden bloggers and garden books can't directly answer that question.

When to plant depends on where your garden is located on the globe and when your area's last expected frost date is. Then, you can calculate when to plant based on what type of vegetable you are growing. For instance, peas can be planted six weeks before the last expected frost, but tomatoes can't be planted until after that frost date. You have to know when your frost date is and look up the information for each kind of vegetable you want to grow.

If you'd rather not do all of that work, I can recommend a great gardening aid for you -
Clyde's Vegetable Planting Slide Chart.

This is an easy to use vegetable gardening slide chart for the home vegetable gardener. It lists over 20 commonly grown vegetables and tells you when to seed indoors, when to plant outdoors, and when you will be able to harvest each vegetable. You simply slide the chart to line up your expected frost date with the red line and all the other information falls into place. On the instruction sheet, Clyde even provides you with the frost dates for all the major cities in the United States. Use the date for the city closest to you.

The red writing on the left side also tells you how many seeds/plants per 10 foot row, planting depth in inches, and distance between rows, hills, and plants after thinning. One side of the planner covers the spring/summer garden. The other side provides the info for fall gardening, which I really appreciate.

I bought this little planner several years ago from Clyde at the Baker Creek Spring Festival in Missouri and have been using it ever since. Now it is available online for only $5.00 from Clyde's website.

I got to meet Clyde Majerus and his family briefly and they are great people. If you like supporting the "little guy" instead of the big corporations, buy one of these planners from Clyde. For more information, visit his site or click on this promotional image I got from it: