When should I plant?

When should I plant for spring? for summer? fall? winter? When should I mix my soil and put it in the box?

What are your neighbors doing?

When I was asking the same questions, I found our local county government hosted a website with planting information and growing tips for our area. They had a colorful printable chart that included the most commonly grown veggies and the time of year to plant them according to our local temps. Your county or state government may offer similar information.

If I remember correctly, I googled 'when to plant vegetables' along with our zip code. Also, the link below offers planting guides for the various growing zones. If you're not sure of your planting zone, they offer a link for you to find out.

http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/resources/planting-schedules (This
site is only one of many, and these charts sure help.)

I've also found helpful information on the sites of various universities with agricultural programs. Many offer printable info with planting charts and growing guides. Sometimes they are hard to find, but very useful. Hope this helps.

As to when to fill the boxes with soil, there's no time like the present, weather permitting. Our weather will be in the 70's this coming week, after near freezing temps a night or two last week! Sooner the soil is in, the sooner you can have it ready to plant according to your planting guide. It will be later than you think (to start seed or transplant) before you know it!

What area do you live in? Zone?

I don't go by when my neighbours are planting because a) I can't see them, b) they plant later because they don't use polytunnels.

I'd like to see photos of your polytunnels.

This is only one of them, but its super hot inside! My garden is totally south facing as well, we're on the top of a small hill.

Thanks so much! These answers are just what I'm looking for. And now I'm curious about polytunnels: Is that, like, a mini greenhouse?

Yep they are. Although, where my family is from, England, most greenhouses are called polytunnels.

I use 6mil poly, the kind they sell at Home Depot as Vapor Barrier. I think it comes in an 8mil as well, which I might try when I run out of the 8mil. Works like a charm, last year I had frames around my tomatoes and I had them planted out in April last year when we were still having snow with the polytunnel on them. They ended up *huge*, I wish I had photos, but all the neighbours were super impressed.

LupinFarm,

I'm curious about your polytunnels and how you get in them. It looks like it's maybe stapled on this side. Do you only have one side you pull back to get in them?

You're right, they are stapled to the wood beds. I just pull up the plastic and restaple most of the spring, if I need to use the poly tunnel in the summer I weight it down with bricks.

when is your last frost date?

Have you read Mel's book, All New Square Foot Gardening? It's all in there with lots of charts and diagrams and pictures.

swissmiss wrote:When should I plant for spring? for summer? fall? winter? When should I mix my soil and put it in the box?

The trick to knowing when to plant is knowing your USDA zone and/or the first and last frost dates for your area. I recently wrote a blog about this that includes a ton of useful links. You can find it at: http://www.timsbackyard.com/2010/03/finding-your-usda-zone_07.html

There are links to find your frost dates by zip code, your USDA zone by zip code, several map links, as well as a link to help you find the Cooperative Extension Service office in your area. They are a great FREE source of info on what's best to plant and when in your particular area. (My only real problem with them is that they have yet to fully embrace SFG. Nonetheless their planting times are accurate unless you're using one of those cool polytunnels like LupinFarm.)

Happy Gardening,

Yup, try getting the book or I second Tim's extension office advice (assuming you are in the states) for more specific times