“I don’t know where to start!” More specifically—"I don’t know WHEN to start!”
These are the thoughts that keep us stuck. We stutter step. And then we get that sick feeling—I bet I’m too late!
What if you DID know when to start? Let me share when and what we do!
Let me be your guide! This is our 'start chart' on when to start the seedlings you need! And the planting windows for direct seeding the ones you don’t need to start ahead of time.
Knowing when it’s safe— and smart— to start your first spring plantings of vegetable, flower and herb seeds indoors and outdoors— is a VERY important factor in getting a good start. I’ve been working on THE resource that will give you insights on sowing windows for all of our varieties in one handy place.
First thing you gotta know is-- what is your final spring frost date? If you're not sure, no worries! There's a tool that can give you your average last frost date simply by entering your zip code. Just click this link and type in your zip code. Compare this information to your experience, if you’ve lived in your location for a while.
For our zip code this tool says we are ‘almost’ guaranteed to be frost-free after May 21st. In our experience, we believe that date is more like May 25th. These are guides but use your place-based wisdom, if you have that experience.
Now that you have that date, what week does it fall into? Our last frost date falls into the third week of May. How does yours compare?
I created a table of recommended planting windows for all of the varieties of seeds we offer-- with recommendations for starting seedlings, direct seeding outdoors and transplanting your seed starts. These charts are in Excel for those of you using a Windows PC and in Numbers for you Mac users.
The beauty of these spreadsheets is-- once you know your frost date, you can easily customize these charts in just a couple of clicks. We have a companion video on YouTube that will walk you through customizing this spreadsheet to your location.
The results-- you'll have your very own location specific start dates for all of our seeds. Gone is that worry-- "I don't know where to start!"
If you'd like to use a pdf print-out instead and skip all that customization stuff, here's a printable chart for our melons and veggies. ... and another for our flowers and herbs. These documents are set for our final spring frost date in the third week of May. You can use this print document as guide and move your dates based on how much earlier or later your last frost date is compared to ours.
As an added bonus-- all the seeding depth and spacing data is included too!! AND I inserted HYPERlinks-- the first column of crop names is clickable! Clicking on the link will take you right to our website and our offerings for each crop-- making finding everything you need HYPER fast!
Printing Instructions
The video walks you through this but-- here are the written instructions. If you're using the spreadsheets, delete the instructions table so the garden chart prints out in a readable size! Here's how:
If you're working in Mac Numbers— in the spreadsheet click on the instructions table on the left side of page. Once you click on the table, you’ll see the rows and columns. Click the circle in the upper left hand corner of the instructions table and hit the ‘delete’ key on your keyboard. Now it will print a much more reasonable size.
If you’re working in Microsoft Excel— click and drag across the columns that contain the instructions on the left hand side of the page. Now those columns are highlighted. Go to the top left hand corner of your screen next to the ‘File’ menu and click on ‘Edit’. In the dropdown menu, click 'Delete'. That will delete the instructions and again— the spreadsheet will print out in a much more reasonable size.
We hope you like these spreadsheets and that it makes it easier for you to finalize your garden plans and be even more successful! We are so happy to get these to you!
And stay tuned-- 'tiz the season of giving and I've got another gift for you in the works!
Merry Christmas to all!
Theresa & Dan