Planting Calendar

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.