A planting calendar is a tool a home gardener can use to help them plant the right things at the right time of year. How to use a planting calendar is made very simple since they are adapted to each growing zone and climate.
Planting calendars use frost dates (the last spring frost and first fall frost), to guide on whether to start seeds indoors or plant them directly outdoors and when to transplant seedlings.
Planting calendars are easy to use online, you just enter your location at one of the many online websites and one that is specific to your location will pop up. If you prefer a paper calendar that provides space for you to make written notations, then just use a small notebook to create a planting calendar and garden journal combination.
USDA Hardiness Zone
The USDA hardiness zone, also known as planting zones or growing zones, it’s the first thing you’ll see on an online planting calendar. The zones are geographical areas where certain kinds of plants can grow based on the region’s climate conditions.
The continental United States has 10 main zones that divide into 10-degree zones based on the average annual minimum temperature during the winter. Other countries can find their hardiness zone by determining their coldest winter temperature and comparing it to the USDA zone map.
Once you determine your hardiness zone, you can determine what to plant and when to plant it.
Nutrition And Production
You want to get the most production from each garden plant and plant as much as possible in the space available. A planting calendar will help you determine this.
Plant only what you like to eat and select the varieties that provide the most nutrition and produce the highest yield. A paper calendar or some type of online spreadsheet will help you keep track of what variety of vegetables, fruits, or flowers you planted and how well they grew and produced. Great information to have for future gardens.
Seeds To Harvest
Every seed will have a determined time that is needed to bring the seed from germination into harvest time. That determined time can range from 30-days for radishes to 170-days for sweet potatoes. A planting calendar will help you discover how many days will be needed from seed planting until harvest time.
Food plants with short seed to harvest time can be planted directly outdoors in the spring and fall. Those that need a long time to reach harvest will need to be started indoors 6-weeks before the last predicted frost date of spring.
Helpful Tool
A planting calendar is a helpful tool that will help you grow a more productive garden wherever that you live and whatever you choose to grow.
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