In yesterday's blog post, I wrote about the flowers you can expect to harvest in your garden in every season. However, the growing schedule looks different than the harvest schedule. For example, in warmer climates you can put in your tulip bulbs and ranunculus corms into the ground in November for them to sprout in February.
I've split up the calendar schedule to cold zones and warm zones. The cold zones are 1-8 and the warm zones are 9-13. The warm zones tend not to go below freezing in winter and have no frost date.
This schedule is growing zone dependent [to find what your growing zone is go here: https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/ ]
January
Warm Zone:
- Start Seeds like iceland poppies, snapdragons, and sweet peas inside.
- Order Dahlia tubers and gladiolas for spring planting.
Cold Zone:
- Order dahlia tubers and gladiolas for spring planting.
February
Warm Zone:
- Start seeds for tender annuals like black-eyed susan and chocolate lace flower
- Direct -sow seeds like love-in-a-mist and larkspur
Cold Zone:
- Start Seeds like iceland poppies, snapdragons, and sweet peas inside.
March
Warm Zone:
- Plant out sweet peas, snapdragons, poppies, violas
- Direct sow hardy annual seeds like love-in-a-mist and larkspur
- Start waking up dahlia tubers if they have been in storage.
Cold Zone:
- Start hardy and tender annuals inside your seed propogation setup indoors. Make sure you have calculated back the number of weeks from your last frost date to make sure they are ready to be out and planted after that date. The seed packets will have this information.
- If you have a protected environment, like a low tunnel or agribon cloth you can pre-sprout ranunculus and anemones.
April
Warm Zone:
- Sow more seeds in your soil blocks! zinnias, celosia - all the summer tender annuals.
- Plant dahlias in garden (after all danger of frost has passed.)
- Look into ordering spring flowering bulbs (narcissi, tulips) for delivery in fall.
Cold Zone:
- Plant sweet peas out into your garden once you can work into the ground.
- Plant snapdragons and poppies into your garden.
- Start seeds indoors for the tender annuals like zinnia, cosmos etc.
- Start waking up the dahlia tubers.
May
Warm Zone:
- Take care of your plants in the garden. Feed them with liquid fertilizer. Pinch back the annuals to get side shoots growing.
Cold Zone:
- Once you are past your frost date, transplant tender annuals into your garden: zinnias, cosmos, celosia, basil.
- Plant dahlias into the garden.
- Feed all your plants with liquid fertilizer.
- Seed sunflowers directly into the garden.
June
Warm Zone:
- Order spring growing bulbs ( ranunculus, anemone, tulip, narcissus) for delivery in fall
- Plant out all remaining seeds. Succession sow your favorite varieties
Cold Zone:
- Order spring growing bulbs ( ranunculus, anemone, tulip, narcissus) for delivery in fall
July
Warm Zone:
- Keep succession sowing your favorite varieties.
- Harvest time!
Cold Zone:- Keep succession sowing your favorite varieties.
- Harvest time!
August
Warm Zone:
- Harvest time!
Cold Zone:- Harvest time!
September
Warm Zone:
- Harvest time!
Cold Zone:- Direct seed Hardy Annuals like love-in-a-mist and larkspur
- Harvest time!
October
Warm Zone:
- Plant spring-flowering bulbs (narcissus and tulips)
- Direct seed Hardy Annuals like love-in-a-mist and larkspur
- Pre-sprout ranunculus and anemones.
- Sow sweet-peas in pots.
Cold Zone:- Direct seed Hardy Annuals like love-in-a-mist and larkspur
- Plant spring-flowering bulbs (narcissus and tulips)
- Dig out and store dahlias and scented geraniums
November
Warm Zone:
- Plant the rest of the spring-flowering bulbs (narcissus and tulips)
- Dig up dahlias and store.
- Plant in garden ranunculus and anemones.
Cold Zone:
- Plant the rest of the spring-flowering bulbs (narcissus and tulips)
- Dig out and store dahlias and scented geraniums
December
Warm Zone:
- Rest!
Cold Zone:
- Rest!
December
Warm Zone:
- Rest!
Cold Zone:
- Rest!
