#Mini diary for each month pdf#
#Mini diary for each month full#
#Mini diary for each month trial#

In spring, if you are in a warmer climate than here, sow the first category maybe a week earlier. You can categorise vegetables into three categores, according to their temperature tolerances.ġ Plants which grow in cold and survive frosts of say -6C / 20F, include peas, broad beans, onions, lettuce, spinach, brassicas and coriander.Ģa Plants killed by frost include tomatoes and sweetcorn, but they tolerate cool conditions.Ģb Vegetables needing steady warmth as well as no frost include runner/pole and French/bush beans, aubergines/eggplants and cucumbers. This page is about sowing and does not have planting dates – see my Diary for more on that.Īpplying these dates in different climatic zones

Planting “outdoors” means setting plants in the ground, as opposed to sowing seeds in a greenhouse or polytunnel.

I put with warmth for seedlings/plants that are killed by frost AND need extra warmth to grow. So they will survive frost in a greenhouse say, as seedlings. All sowings I recommend in February and early March, until tomatoes, are frost tolerant. So look to move them from windowsill to greenhouse/polytunnel/cold frame.

#Mini diary for each month full#

I recommend sowing “under cover” where it’s warmer: windowsill, electric propagator, greenhouse, anywhere warm.Īfter about two weeks as new leaves grow fast, most plants need full light as much as or more than warmth. Seeds require more warmth to germinate than plants need to grow. It is an option for people in colder climates with a shorter growing season: Highland Seedlings Sowing Schedule

#Mini diary for each month pdf#

Mairi Macpherson sent me her sowing schedule for Scotland, at 57° north, and has kindly agreed to allow me to add it here as a downloadable PDF document. Its sowing dates continue until autumn so it’s a good purchase even in summer, with lovely photos of my garden here, and it has no dig advice too. Dates refer to sowing seeds, not planting plants.įor a beautiful reminder of when to sow vegetables, all year long, see my Wall Calendar for 2023. Dates are based on the climate of Somerset in south west UK, USDA zone 8, last frost mid May and first frost mid October. Although many gardeners do and are happy with the smaller yield and insect-damaged leaves, compared with healthier leaves and more weeks, even months of picking, from August sowings. Hence for example I do not recommend sowing salad rocket and mizuna in the spring because it’s their flowering season.

They will grow, but the outcomes will be different, such as lower yield, more pest and disease, perhaps a tendency to flower rather than leaf. You can sow vegetables at different times to ones I suggest. Fleece reduces light by 15-30% but in spring this does not matter, because there is a surplus of light, and fleece converts some of the surplus to otherwise-absent warmth.Use fleece/row covers in spring to help young plants establish.Older plants take more time to establish so you lose cropping time in the end.

Always plant before the roots have used all available compost and before you see leaves going yellow or purple (lack of nitrogen mostly).I recommend planting small ones of average 4 weeks since sowing, except for tomatoes, aubergines etc.How big your plant is when you set it in the ground is your call.

Sometimes also one says to plant garlic and potatoes! In cooler climates, I recommend sowing undercover to speed this early part of most plants’ lives.Ģ Plant refers to setting out a plant with leaves. Many seeds are small and early growth is therefore slow. On this page:ġ ‘S ow’ is for setting seeds in soil / compost, from celery to tomato to garlic, even potato. These two words are often used interchangeably, which causes confusion.

#Mini diary for each month trial#

From decades of trial and error in my gardens, where results have revealed the timings for top results.