Guidelines for When to Plant Seeds

by Doug
(in his garden somewhere)

How do I figure out when to plant my seeds?

Well, I confess I read the back of the seed packages when I have a new variety. Most of the good seed houses will give you a planting date range in the instructions (Stokes has the best info for beginning gardeners.)

Otherwise, try this rough schedule if you're going to be planting your garden towards the middle to end of May.

* Perennials get planted in early January.


* Most flowers get planted in late February (marigolds, petunias, impatiens)

* Sow your vegetables in late March. Most beginners plant these too early and wind up with really tall, leggy seedlings. (see a following article for how to prevent that)

There is some variability in flowers but don't plant your vegetables before the end of March or you'll have giant stretched out transplants for sure.

For the rest of the scheduling, I keep records from every year I garden and adjust the seeding dates according to the needs of the plants and my particular system. Its not always convenient, but I thank myself every spring for the extra information I've added the previous years.

Try a few seedlings this year. If you've never done it before, you can't go wrong with Marigolds, Nemesia, and Annual Poppies. Tomatoes, and cole crops (cabbages etc.) are the easiest of the vegetables. This season, try a bit of real gardening; start your own seedlings.