Home Vegetable Gardening: A Gardener's Calendar

About This Calendar

Basics

The very idea of a gardening "calendar" is arrogant. Nature famously is strong-willed, and commercial growers of decades' experience can occasionally be flattened by Mother Nature's steamroller of variations. This calendar, like any such thing, has to be seen as being at best an aide-memoire, a look-ahead reminder of what tasks likely lie in the near future, so they don't sneak up on us. It is absolutely, positively not a set, reliable framework. Do this on that date is impossible; start thinking about doing this sometime a fair bit ahead of that date is more like what we've got here.

Keep in mind that direct-seeding is chancey enough, but that when we start seedlings indoors for later transplanting out, we are arm-wrestling Mother Nature, and besides a strong will, She has strong arms. Not a few brave souls ignore indoor starts, sometimes with remarkable success. On the tomatoes page here, we quote someone--we've long since forgotten the source, who observed The neighbor would plant whole tomatoes that were just starting to turn at the first frost. He put them 12 inches deep and he had mobs of plants come up in the early spring. With big long roots. Some people advocate what they call "winterseeding", which is the same idea as the tomato fellow had: don't wrestle Mother Nature, dance with her; there is a web site, wintersown.org, with lots more information on this approach. Or, simplest of all, scatter seed in late autumn, when most plants normally and naturally drop seed, and see what happens come spring. For most home gardeners, that's too risky, but it's worth setting aside a little space and trying it with a few specimens of each vegetable you grow, to see if any do come up in their time with any regularity and vigor.

The entries on this calendar derives straightforwardly--more or less--from the "Timing" information on the various individual-vegetable pages of this site, which should be consulted for explanations of how the dates were estimated. Recall, please, what we said earlier: we are not "master gardeners" and this information is not the result of some vast personal experience--it is derived from extensive review of the literature and examination of local long-term weather tables. Caveat hortensia.

The weather data used for "typical" temperatures and such is the fifty-year data from the State weather-data-collecting station in Ritzville, Washington (State), which is a cool U.S.D.A. Zone 6a, very near to the map line separating it from 5b.

As we say on the Introduction page of this site, it is important to avoid worshipping at the altar of "Zone", because a Zone number does not tell anyone much of anything about a place save the typical coldest winter temperature; places with the same Zone number can have seriously different climates. The Ritzville climate is, we think, pretty representative--as to temperatures, anyway, even if not necessarily rainfall--of a great many places in the United States. We imagine that the information on this site is useful, with only minor common-sense modification, to anyone living from Zone 4 to Zone 7, inclusive, and that sure takes in a lot of territory.

Oh, and before jumping in, please do mind the special notes just below.

Important notes:

• This is only a summary: for each plant, consult the details on its full page here.

• This calendar does not show a potato-planting date--you need to ascertain that from your selected seed-potato seedsman. Try to place your order the fall or early winter preceding, to be sure of getting the types you want. In any event, don't plant seed potatoes till the soil temperature is at least 50° F.

• For convenience, we have rounded off to month-start and mid-month dates; real life is not so tidy. These are reminders only, aids to memory.

• We have assumed that lettuce and salad greens and radishes are being succession-sown continually, and show no dates for those.

• Owing to sheer ignorance, we show no dates for rhubarb (but link excellent information sources on the rhubarb page).

• So-called "Egyptian" or "walking" onions can supposedly be planted at any time, even in the winter, but are best done in spring; they perennialize in time, so that is a one-time consideration.

• This calendar does not show any harvest-date information; use your eyes and brain.

• This calendar does not yet (eventually--we hope--it will) show dates relating to herbs or to fruits or berries.

• Finally and again: these dates are approximations, rounded off to two-week intervals. This calendar is a set of rough reminders, not an exact schedule--consult the various individual-vegetable pages for fuller planning information.

The Calendar Proper

If you find this site interesting or useful, please link to it on your site by cutting and pasting this HTML:
The <a href="http://growingtaste.com/"><b>Growing Taste</b></a> Vegetable-Gardening Site

--Site Directory--

Search this site, or the web

	Web growingtaste.com

• Background Information about the purposes and design of this site
  • Site Front Page
  • Introduction
    • Our Climate--
      • Our Location (USDA Zone Map)
      • Daily Weather Table
      • Our Freeze Risks
      • Our Garden Design
  • An Apologia: why one should cultivate one's garden
  • Deep-Bed Gardening (forthcoming)
  • Container Gardening (forthcoming)
  • Vegetarian and Organic Considerations (forthcoming)
  
  
  
• Recommended Crops for a home garden, by variety
  • Vegetable Varieties
  • Herb and Spice Varieties
  • Fruit and Berry Varieties
  
  
  
• Gardening information and aids
  • Tools and Equipment
    • Garden Tools (forthcoming)
    • Seed-Starting (forthcoming)
    • Colored Plastic Mulches
  • A Garden Calendar
  • Suppliers for Recommended Varieties
  • Estimated Seed Life in Storage
  
  
  
• Miscellaneous Information of interest to the home gardener
  • Links:
    • Vegetable-Gardening Links
    • On-Line Vegetable Seed & Plant Sellers
  • About Oxalic Acid in Vegetables
  • About Induction Cooking [now at a site of its own: The Induction Site]
  • So Who Are We?
  
  
  
• Books on "Vegetables" and vegetable gardening, both new and used
  In reality, we have several bookshops, in two sets: one based on The Book Depository's US site and one on The Book Depository's UK site; within each set, there are seven shops, each showing the prices in (and allowing purchase in) each of seven different currencies). The links farther below are to the U.S.-based shop (priced in US dollars), but you can visit any of the fourteen:
  
  

  From The Book Depository US web site: ·  priced in U.S. Dollars ·  priced in Canadian Dollars ·  priced in U.K. pounds ·  priced in Euros ·  priced in Australian Dollars ·  priced in New Zealand Dollars ·  priced in Singapore Dollars

  From The Book Depository UK web site: ·  priced in U.S. Dollars ·  priced in Canadian Dollars ·  priced in U.K. pounds ·  priced in Euros ·  priced in Australian Dollars ·  priced in New Zealand Dollars ·  priced in Singapore Dollars

  
  In our U.S.A. Bookshop:
  • About Our Bookshop - including many specific book recommendations
  • "Vegetables" Books Available New Today, By Title:
    (vegetables book titles beginning with the word "vegetables" are broken out separately in the alphabetical title lists below)
    A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | numerals | all else
  • Search For Any Book at The Book Depository

Since you're growing your own vegetables and fruits, shouldn't you be cooking them in the best way possible? Visit The Induction Site to find out what that best way is!

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