Which vegies do you start indoors and when?

I'm in Brampton, NW of Toronto. I've been planning to start SFG this spring. Over the winter, I've been washing out pet food cans and yoghurt tubs to use for starting plants indoors.

Any suggestions from your experience would be appreciated. Thanks.

March

If you have the All New Square Foot Gardening book there are some wonderful charts in the back. There's one for starting seed indoors, when to transplant them and when to seed directly outdoors.

Other than that, does your area have anything like an Extension Service through a local university or other organization? This is your BEST choice as they have insight to your local weather.

Welcome to the forum. With you living in Canada, your hardiness zones differ from mine in the USA. Maybe someone living in your area can respond much better.
I suggest finding out your hardiness zone, probably online, then planning from there.
As a general rule, you can start many brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower) and greens in the early spring indoors to transplant outdoors anywhere from 3-12 weeks before your last frost.
Broccoli, cabbage and parsley 12 wks before last frost, cauliflower and onions 10 wks before, eggplant, lettuce, peppers, and Swiss chard 7 wks before and so on. Some of these can be transplanted outdrs while its still rather cool while others, like peppers, have to wait till all chance of a frosty nite has passed.
I suggest getting Mel Bartholomew's book The All New Square Foot Garden Book with its helpful ideas and charts.
Or check your local library for books about food crops that grow well in your area and study it.
Good luck.

sfg4uKim wrote:If you have the All New Square Foot Gardening book there are some wonderful charts in the back. There's one for starting seed indoors, when to transplant them and when to seed directly outdoors.

Other than that, does your area have anything like an Extension Service through a local university or other organization? This is your BEST choice as they have insight to your local weather.

Agreed

I got a planting calendar from http://allthingsplants.com/apps/calendar. Hope I copied that right. Quite useful and it's set up by zip if I remember right.

I did pepers and tomatoes for the first time, now the toms are a perfect size for planting and there's 13 inches of snow on my SFG.

March wrote:I'm in Brampton, NW of Toronto. I've been planning to start SFG this spring. Over the winter, I've been washing out pet food cans and yoghurt tubs to use for starting plants indoors.

Any suggestions from your experience would be appreciated. Thanks.

March

Here's a chart from the Ministry of Ag. It includes frost dates for all areas of Ontario as well as guidelines about what to plant or transplant after the date for your area. The chart says that Brampton's Average last date for spring is April 25th, but I wouldn't transplant frost tender plants outdoors until Victoria Day weekend. And even then, make sure you check the Weather Channel if it's cool outside.

Good luck starting your own seeds. What were you hoping to plant? Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant should all have been started indoors by now. It takes about 6 to 8 weeks from seed until they are large enough to transplant outdoors. What other veggies do you like to eat? That should help you decide what to put in your garden.

BLRH & others,
Not all seeds germinate at the same rate neither do all seedlings develop at the same speed so there is no hard and fast rule to play by .

In Mel's book ( see my strap lines ) Mel gives you some much needed ( chart form ) info about it on pages 263 & 264 .