Self-Sufficient Veg: Gardening Calendars

Garlic & shallots drying on bean trellis

One of the hardest things when you start growing vegetables is knowing what to do when. Well that question plagues the most experienced, too! Weather can be a tricksy thing that’s hard to be sure about a week hence, let alone a month. But you will find, over a season or three, that you’ll begin to get a feel for when is a good time to do things. That’s important – every place and patch of ground is different – no set of fixed rules will be right all the time, your growing intuition can be invaluable.

There are some basics about the seasons that you can’t fight, so calendars of tasks are very useful to give you a good starting point. I garden in UK and it is surprising how much climate variation there is in such a relatively small island. In USA those variations are much greater so it is important you seek out knowledge that is local and relevant to you. All of my posts here will be pertinent for gardeners in northern temperate latitudes, many for gardeners anywhere, but you will need to factor in your own local knowledge.

These links should help you get to know the season …

Your ‘hardiness zone’ is useful to know, it’s mostly about what will survive! The standard one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardiness_zone

and a more detailed one for USA which could be a better guide for growing:
http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/article/1,20633,845218,00.html

I’ve seen few sites that dynamically tailor a gardening calendar to your zone, here’s one that does for both UK and USA (if you know of any other good ones please let us know with a comment) :
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/calendars-index.asp

One of the best UK sites I’ve seen is by ‘Garden Organic’ also known as HDRA (Henry Doubleday Research Association) you’ll find plenty of useful stuff there if you roam, here’s the calendar start page:
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/todo_now/archive/index.php

Organic UK has plenty of useful information and I’ll give you direct links to monthly checklists, sowing and planting schedules, and the fruit year:
http://www.organicgarden.org.uk/
http://www.organicgarden.org.uk/checklist/index.htm
http://www.organicgarden.org.uk/starthere/seedsow.htm
http://www.organicgarden.org.uk/growing/grow/veg_grow_chart.htm
http://www.organicgarden.org.uk/growing/grow/fruityr.htm

A one page PDF copied from a UK gardening magazine, could be useful printed as a quick reference:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stan.shepherd/downloads/GardenShopLeaflet.pdf

A good website from Yorkshire, UK, here’s the calendar page:
http://www.keirg.freeserve.co.uk/diary/tech/calendar.htm

If you live in the USA your State’s ‘Cooperative Extension Service’ can be an excellent source of calendar and what crops and varieties grow well information. Many US universities also produce plenty of useful online information. Here are a couple of link lists to help you find yours:
http://roundrobin2001.0catch.com/extensions.html
http://www.gardenersnet.com/atoz/ces.htm

US Organic Gardening has almanacs for 11 different regions:
http://www.organicgardening.com/channel/1,,s1-5,00.html

A list of vegetables with planting dates relative to average last frost dates:
http://www.heirloomseeds.com/schedule.htm

I’ll be back in a couple of days with my thoughts on what to do in November. Meanwhile if you have any useful gardening calendar links please share them with us by a comment ;-))