
Planting Calendar
For Western Washington State
FEBRUARY
• Start Broccoli, Cabbage and Cauliflower indoors under a fluorescent shop light.
• At month's end, move starts into a cold frame or sheltered outdoor location to toughen.
MARCH
• Transplant February cabbage-family seedlings outdoors.
• Start tomatoes, peppers and eggplant indoors.
• Sow beets, chard, lettuce, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, spinach and turnips outdoors.
APRIL
• Thin direct-seeded crops as they sprout.
• Sow carrots and parsnips.
• Late in the month, plant squash, zucchini, pumpkins and cucumber seeds indoors in large pots.
MAY
• Harden tender transplants by putting them out in a sheltered location. Bring them in at night.
• When soil warms, seed corn and beans.
• Transplant starts of heat-lovers such as tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers.
JUNE
• Replant replacement crops when early lettuce, mustard greens, bok choys and spinach mature.
JULY
• Start transplants for later crops: fall broccoli and cabbage, and overwintered broccoli, kale and onions.
• Sow seeds of carrots, peas and rutabagas by mid-July.
• Harvest beans, cucumbers and squash promptly for best flavor and production.
AUGUST
• Sow fall beets, spinach and turnips in the first week.
• Plant out July-sown cold crops.
• Keep planting leaf lettuce, radishes, overwintering spinach and Swiss chard all month.
SEPTEMBER
• Plant a winter cabbage early in the month.
• Sow winter choys and mustard greens.
OCTOBER
• Plant garlic cloves now for a pungent harvest next summer.
• Sow a green manure crop such as crimson clover, vetch or field peas, in empty spaces.
NOVEMBER
• Plant out onions sown in July.
DECEMBER
• Mulch paths with wood chips to keep feet drier.