When growing your own fruits and vegetables, the first thing you need to know is when is a good time to start a garden. If you’re asking, ‘is it too late to start a garden,’ the answer is no, it’s never too late. You just need to know the right time to start it so you’ll be able to have high-quality products.
If you’re ready to begin planting, here’s a guide for when to start planting different fruits and vegetables.
Knowing How Long the Plants Take Will Help You Know the Best Time to Plant Seeds
The first thing you will need to do when timing your planting is to figure out exactly how long each vegetable or herb is going to take to grow.
This helps you to make a plan of attack, as well as for deciding if you should start from a seed or a small plant. If you have time to spare, seeds might be best as they cost less, but plants are good when this is more of a last-minute project.
Some of the vegetables and plants that will take the longest are parsley, broccoli, oregano, onions, leeks, and some greens. These tend to need about 10-11 weeks of planning ahead of time before you can enjoy the harvest.
The plants that are between 7 and 9 weeks are your cherry tomatoes, peppers, shallots, eggplant, and some types of lettuce. The ones that only need about 4-6 weeks of planning are cucumber, squash, melons, cabbage, basil, and a variety of other herbs.
When is a Good Time to Start a Garden: A Season by Season Guide
Another method for knowing how to time your planting is looking at the seasons they grow in. Here are some examples of foods that grows in the spring, summer, fall, and winter.
This of course may depend on your climate and soil conditions as well, so it is just an example for you to start with:
Planting a Winter Garden
For December, January, and February, you are still in the coldest parts of winter. This is when you want to start your tomatoes and bell pepper seeds, onions, and herbs like parsley, chives, basil, and oregano.
Most of these seeds should be started indoors during the winter to avoid frost. Some others to start indoors are dill, broccoli, beets, and cabbage.
When to Start Spring Garden
Near the end of March when spring begins, you can start on your carrots, thyme and sage, lettuce, cucumbers, and corn. Melons, spinach, peas, summer squash, beans, and beets also are good to start in the spring.
How to Plant a Summer Garden
Some of these may be the same as spring because they include veggies and herbs that prefer the hot summer heat. These include beans, cabbage, beets, cucumbers, carrots, corn, peas, and kale.
Fall Garden Ideas
In the fall, you can start your radishes, spinach, garlic, blueberries, sprouts, and any vegetables you are starting from a plant instead of a seed.
Takeaway
If you have been asking ‘is it time to plant,’ and, ‘when is a good time to start a garden,’ we hope this article helped answer your questions. It all boils down to doing research about the plants that you want to include in your garden.
The more you learn about your plants, such as what season they grow, the more likely it is that you will be successful in your planting venture.