How to Decide When to Plant Vegetables in Your Area

Figuring out when to plant vegetables in your area requires a little detective work. In addition to your geographic location, you’ll need to consider a few other variables, as well. For example, the type of vegetables you plan to grow and how you intend to plant them (seedlings, transplants or seeds) will factor into when you should get your crops in the ground, as well.

If you live in an area with distinct seasons, your vegetable growing season will fall loosely between your anticipated frost-free date in the spring and the first hard frost in the fall. Unless you have a crystal ball, it is next to impossible to predict these dates with absolute certainty. 

Fortunately, there are some valuable online resources you can check for general guidelines. A quick online search for “frost-free date” + your geographic area should give you a good idea of when it might be safe to plant in your region.

Starting seeds indoors for an earlier start. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Of course, the published frost-free date for your area doesn’t take into account unexpected late season snow storms or unseasonably cold temperatures. However, if you wait until after the expected frost-free date for your area AND for the daytime soil temperature to reach 65 degrees or warmer, you should be in good shape. If you want to warm up your soil faster, you can cover your planting beds with dark plastic sheets for several weeks prior to planting.

As you develop your garden planting timeline, think of these two important dates as virtual “bookends” around your prime vegetable growing season. However, if you start seeds indoors or protect your plants from cold temperatures with mulch, cold frames, row covers or mini-hoop houses, you can extend your growing season even further. 

Don’t Ignore “Days to Maturity” for Your Selected Plants

As you’re deciding when to plant vegetables in your garden, pay close attention the “days to maturity” information noted on the seed packages or plant markers for the vegetables you’ve selected. This number, which is often expressed as a range of days, tells you how long it will take until that plant is ready to harvest.

Lettuce in raised beds with hoops (Photo credit: Gardening in a Minute)

This is important to know because some vegetables reach maturity much faster than others. For example, radishes, lettuce and baby carrots may be ready for harvest just 30 days after they are sown as seeds. On the other hand, some pumpkin varieties can take a full 120 – 160 days before they reach maturity. 

The “days to maturity” for a particular vegetable variety gives you an idea of how early you need to get that plant into the ground if you want it to reach maturity before your first hard frost date. 

It also tells you how late in the season you can plant certain crops. For example, you can’t wait until late summer in northern climates to plant pumpkins seeds that require 160 days to mature. On the other hand, you can plant fast-growing lettuce varieties with confidence until 30 days or so before your expected last frost date.  

Learning when to plant vegetables in your area is worth the effort. Knowing when your prime growing season begins and ends – and how you can get the most out of it – will make you a much more successful food gardener. It will help you decide which vegetables to grow and how to help those varieties thrive in your garden.

We will be on vacation next week, so will not be posting, but be sure to check back the following week when we'll share 3 important tips that vegetable gardeners need to keep in mind for a successful organic gardening experience!  Have a Happy Memorial Day, and enjoy your beautiful early summer garden!

Dealing With & Preventing Frost Damaged Plants

As was terribly evident yesterday when I took a walk through my end-of-season garden, the appearance of wilting leaves, and leaves that have a water logged look can be a sign that your plant is suffering from frost damage. Another sign of frost damage can be the appearance of brown or purplish patches on the leaves.

Other signs are shown when the shoot tips on your plants start to die back. If the flowers on the plant don't open fully or they become discolored and then start to die off, then these are also signs that frost damage might have occurred.

Frost-damaged aloe vera plant. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is no treatment for frost damage other than to remove the damaged portions of the plant in an effort to make it look a little healthier. Provided the damage hasn't been too severe you might not lose the plant.

Sometimes frost damage is not noticeable for a few days after a frost has occurred and this is particularly so if the frost was a very light one.

The best way to protect against frost damage, or to reduce the effect that frost might have on your garden is to choose the best plants for your climate conditions. If you are living in an area that is susceptible to frosts then your best course of action is to choose plants that are frost-tolerant.

By planting in areas that are exposed or where frosts occur more frequently you will increase the chances of losing plants to frosts, so it is wise to plant in sheltered spots or areas other than where there are frost pockets.

In the early fall or late spring, you can offer some temporary protection to your plants by wrapping them in Hessian cloth or frost cloth until after the period of frost has passed.

This time of year though, the end of the road is inevitable for many of our summer garden plants. It's been a great season, and I hope you've enjoyed your gardening experiences this summer as well!

Related Articles:

• Protecting your plants against frost & freeze (wcpo.com)
• Protect your plants as winter weather grows near (wcpo.com)
• Cold? It's time to start protecting plants, vegetation (wbaltv.com)
• Three Steps to Protecting Your Garden Over Winter (epicahome.com)

Video - Starting Your Vegetable Seeds Indoors

This short video gives some pointers for giving your vegetable garden a head start - by starting your seeds indoors ahead of time. Most seeds should be started 4-6 weeks ahead of the last frost date, so they have time to get a good root system established before transplanting. However, some may take less time, so be sure to check the instructions on your seed packets before planting. If you plant too soon, your plants can get too "leggy" and die, or not transplant well. His tip about the rolling racks is a great one - this way you can roll them outside if you like when it gets warm enough during the day, and easily bring them back in at night.

Check it out, and get your garden started early this year!

How to Start your vegetable seeds indoors Part 1 of 2
Vegetable Garden How to start your vegetable seeds / plants indoors to beat the weather and save money. Visit The Bayou Gardener at http://www.thebayougarden...


Helpful Seed Starting Resources:
   

Growing Winter Potatoes In Your Organic Garden

Growing winter potatoes is best done in a warm climate or in sheltered containers. This is simply because it can be difficult to dig them up if the ground is frozen hard. The potatoes will also suffer from frost if they are left in the ground during winter in a cold climate.

However, there is nothing to stop you growing winter potatoes in a conservatory or greenhouse, for example, even if you live in a place where frost and snow are common in winter. You will simply need a greenhouse heater that switches on automatically to prevent the temperature dipping below the freezing point.

Potatoes growing in container. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When you are growing winter potatoes it is important to remember that growth will slow down when the days are shorter and colder. Therefore you need to start them in the summer (August or early September) if you want to harvest at Christmas, or a little earlier for Thanksgiving in the northern US. It is a wonderful feeling to be able to serve your own new potatoes with the family dinner on these holidays!

What is chitting and is it necessary?

You will often see recommendations that you should leave potatoes in a dark, cool place and wait for them to begin to sprout (chitting) before you plant them. If you have time to do this, that's great. You may see that some potatoes are failing to sprout and you can pick out the ones with the healthiest looking sprouts to plant. However, if you don't have time for this, don't worry about it. Most potatoes will grow just fine without chitting.

If using tub containers, you can put 3 plants into an 18 inch diameter container. Be sure that the containers are cleaned well with water and have drainage holes. Place a couple of inches of gravel at the bottom of the container to prevent waterlogging.

Then, for growing winter potatoes, place 3 inches of mulch, leaves or straw on top of the gravel. This will produce heat as it breaks down and help to keep the potatoes frost free.

1 and a half russet potato with sprouts.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Plant them in about 3 inches of compost and fertilize well. Continue to add more compost and fertilizer as the plants grow, so that you gradually fill the container. (This will increase your yield, as the plants will form potatoes all the way up along the stems once covered.) If you can find organic potato fertilizer, that is ideal. Manure is too strong and will burn the roots of the plants.

The plants will continue to grow after the container is full. Then they will flower and a few weeks later the tops will start to die off. At that time the potatoes are ready. If you leave them a couple more weeks, they will continue to grow bigger.

Good varieties are Maris Peer, Charlotte and many others. You can buy seed potatoes or (provided you are growing in containers) you can use organic potatoes from the grocery store or locally grown organic potatoes from a farmers' market.

Do not plant bought potatoes that are not seed potatoes in the soil of your garden, however, because they can carry disease which will then stay in the soil and affect future crops. For the same reason, if you grow grocery store potatoes in containers, do not spread the compost on your garden after you are done growing winter potatoes.