Tuesday, December 6, 2011

My 2012 Garden Planting Calendar

I'm a data analyst, so it's not surprising that I've spent the last two years experimenting with my vegetable garden and recording the results. Lots of effort went into seeing how far I can stretch my growing season, and I think in these two years, I've got a general idea of where my limits are now.

With everything I planted, I recorded it into a spreadsheet and gave each trial a final grade when all was said and done. What came out of that two year experiment was this garden planting calendar that I'll be using for 2012:

January
1st Start broccoli seeds (Gypsy)

Start cabbage seeds

Start bok choi for barrels


February
1st Transplant broccoli, cabbage and bok choi
15th Plant English peas (cover for frost)


March
1st Start tomato seeds

Start pepper seeds


April


May
15th Plant pole beans

Plant carrot seeds

Plant zucchini seeds

Plant cucumber seeds

Transplant tomatoes, peppers


June
15th Plant pole beans (optional)


July
1st Plant pole bans (optional)
15th Start broccoli seeds (Arcadia, Marathon)

Start cabbage seeds

Plant carrot seeds
August
15th Plant snow peas

Transplant broccoli, cabbage (cover for shade)

I confess, I'm looking forward to having a schedule to stick to this year. It's going to be much easier. I won't be spending a lot of time planting things that ended up as little more than bug food. And I can stop constantly pouring through my gardening books, looking for what I can try planting every couple of weeks. 2012 is going to be a much simpler year. I'm trying a few new varieties of tomato, and a new specialty variety of sweet pepper. But besides that, this will be a year I do a little more relaxing.  Now, I just hope the weather doesn't throw me a giant curve!

2 comments:

  1. I am gonna be lazy and buy a lot of transplants this year methinks.

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  2. Hey Ron, thanks for visiting my blog. It looks like from your website you're right around my back yard (figuratively speaking lol). Exciting to connect with other gardeners in the area! When I had a garden in Petaluma years ago, I was strictly transplant. Now, I'm a devoted seed starter. I love the control I get on what to plant and when. Suits my personality, lol.

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