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!