Plant Seeds - When/Where

I've been cruising the forum for a few days now and I have learned a lot. This is my first attempt at gardening and so far I'm off to a rough start but I think I'll be ok. I didn't use Mel's Mix (found out after the fact) but rather that familiar green bag you see at the big box store that says garden soil with a mix of bagged top soil 50:50. I decided to just keep moving forward and I'll use some liquid fertilizer to help things along. I've also found a local landscape supplier in my area that has mushroom compost, so in order to amend my soil, I added a few bags and mixed it into my already 50:50 blend.

That being said, my biggest questions revolve around seeds:

1) When to plant?
Cool vs Warm veggies is still confusing me and I'm not entirely sure I understand which veggies are which. Thus I'm not sure how do you know when to start planting each. I'm in Zone 5 (Chicago Suburbs) by the way. I have found this site that has given some sort of foundation.

mastergardeners.org/warm-cool-veg-charts

2) Once I figure out warm vs cool, my next question is where do you start seeds, in or out and how do you know? Some of the seed packets that I have bought have instruction for both in and out, our just out. Again, when do you start them in vs starting the out?

Thanks for the help and I'll continue learning.

twodaend wrote:I've been cruising the forum for a few days now and I have learned a lot. This is my first attempt at gardening and so far I'm off to a rough start but I think I'll be ok. I didn't use Mel's Mix (found out after the fact) but rather that familiar green bag you see at the big box store that says garden soil with a mix of bagged top soil 50:50. I decided to just keep moving forward and I'll use some liquid fertilizer to help things along. I've also found a local landscape supplier in my area that has mushroom compost, so in order to amend my soil, I added a few bags and mixed it into my already 50:50 blend.

That being said, my biggest questions revolve around seeds:

1) When to plant?
Cool vs Warm veggies is still confusing me and I'm not entirely sure I understand which veggies are which. Thus I'm not sure how do you know when to start planting each. I'm in Zone 5 (Chicago Suburbs) by the way. I have found this site that has given some sort of foundation.

mastergardeners.org/warm-cool-veg-charts

2) Once I figure out warm vs cool, my next question is where do you start seeds, in or out and how do you know? Some of the seed packets that I have bought have instruction for both in and out, our just out. Again, when do you start them in vs starting the out?

Thanks for the help and I'll continue learning.

You may find this helpful, in general, but maturity dates may be shorter with SFG since soil warms faster in a raise bed & the looser soil speeds root growth...

http://www.chestnut-sw.com/growform.htm

Little House in the Suburbs Guide

Someone here suggested that site. I found the printables on the above link very helpful. Once you figure out your last frost dates for spring planting and first frost dates for fall planting, those booklets tell you what to plant when. The booklet will tell you when to sow seeds and when to transplant.

I didn't plant some items soon enough, but I am hoping to be more successful with fall planting.

(We used to live in Oswego.)

Thank you both for the links. These claendars will really help me stay on track. In the event I plant something that does not work out, I can look at the calendar and see what I can plant for that week.

Welcome to the forum. I'm in zone 5a and the cool weather crops should have been in the ground before your last freeze so don't worry about those now. Its getting too warm for them and they will all be bolting soon.

You can put in cool-weather crops like cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Bok Choy, cauliflower, Swiss chard, Parsnips, spinach, lettuce, carrots, peas, radishes and garlic among them..... for a fall crop. Sow the seeds in the summer (July and August, depending on when you have your first fall frost) when the heat will germinate the seeds nicely outdoors and they'll grow bigger as the weather is cooling for fall. Fewer insect pests, too, so they grow great in fall.

All the other stuff are warm-weather crops like cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, squashes, melons, beans, and corn. You can put transplants in the ground now or sow seeds of corn, cukes and beans directly in the ground. I just sowed corn seeds today and cukes a week ago.

Get a few books from the library if you can and study the planting charts you can find online for your zone. It'll all help and next year you can get an early start with the cool crops. Good luck and enjoy your garden. The food can't be beat for flavor.