Planting Schedule in a Raised Bed

I have a square foot garden using a raised bed for the first time. The soil depth is about 10 inches and I used the standard "text book mix", plus a little regular soil. This is my first full year and I was wondering if I could plant seeds/plants earlier in a raised bed since it has air all around it and would heat up earlier than the regular soil. I have a seeding/planting schedule from the local Extension Office for this area. Can I bump it up a couple weeks or days using a raised bed.

gspoerke, I would not push planting hot weather plants, like tomatoes and peppers, any earlier than you would in the ground. Well, unless you have hot houses set over the beds. And, those create another problem in that you have to open them in the day so the plants don't fry. Patience is a virtue, especially in gardening.

sanderson wrote:Patience is a virtue, especially in gardening.

That's why I knit. I have 0 patience. Knitting keeps me from going crazy waiting for plants to grow.

OhioGardener wrote:

sanderson wrote: Patience is a virtue, especially in gardening.

God, grant me patience, and I want it Now! 

I don't think the square foot garden method gives you any advantage to plant early.   The planting schedule that your local cooperative created is based on an average year.  So if your weather forecast is warmer than normal, then you can try to plant earlier.

gspoerke, why not take the guessing out of the equation and just measure the mix in your raised bed with a soil or beverage thermometer. Soil temperature is the important factor in the equation rather than a date on the calendar. You might live in a micro-climate that is totally different either way than a neighbor that lives a 1/4 mile away. Enjoy the gardening season and bountiful harvest. A raised bed can give you a jump on a growing season but also gives less protection in the event of a cold snap. Funny how nature keeps everything balanced as if trying to create harmony.

As "Dan in CT" wrote, using a thermometer can help take the guess work out of soil temps. I swear, Mother Nature does her own thing. I plan, she laughs.

OhioGardener wrote:Next month we'll start are early spring planting of things like onions and peas here in Zone 6, and I thought it might be a good idea to re-post the High Mowing Organic Seeds Planting Chart that does a good job of explaining the best times to plant based on the last frost date.

https://www.highmowingseeds.com/pub/media/wysiwyg/pdf/2017%20Planting%20Chart.pdf

I have saved, reformatted (into Excel so temps and timing can hopefully be added into another chart I have), and printed this chart -- thank you very much.  For the longest time,  I've been looking for a good chart that showed best planting temps -- which like someone says, takes the guesswork out or at least one little bit of it. 

Question:  About covering our raised beds if we follow the temps and have a sudden temp drop overnight. 

(My beds are up in the air, too, on concrete blocks, and have a 5" reservoir of water -- so I don't know if they get cold like that from below, too.  We have not put skirts on yet.  Will have to make use of my compost thermometer and start measuring temps to learn how this works.)

I saw in a video by that farmer "Leon" that inside his greenhouses, he considers one layer of plastic as a frost protection for 8degrees F, two layers 16 degrees protection.  8degrees per layer -- and I think he does separate the layers so there is air insulation between?   (Meaning that one extra layer of plastic laid on top of his containers inside a greenhouse will protect to 32-8=24F, two layers will protect down to 24F-8F=16F.) 

Do you think this follows the same for my open air - on stilts -  raised - wicking - beds?

I like that thermometer. It's only 6" instead of 20" like my compost thermometer. The soil temps with which we are concerned are 6-7", especially in table top beds.