February 3, 2012
Planning your Crop with a Vegetable Planting Calendar
If you really want to have a great garden, you may want to consider using a vegetable planting calendar. Deciding what to grow and preparing adequately the soil before planting vegetables and fruit is an important step. Yet, having a calendar will help you plant the right vegetables at the right time.
It also involves deciding during which season or time of the year to start planting. Especially if you live in a region that has extreme climates, then this calendar will help you with what to grow in each of these seasons.
With a vegetable planting calendar, you will notice that the year is equally distributed between two periods. The first one starts in spring (March to May) with the planting. You can reap the spring harvest in June or July. The second period begins around mid-July and lasts until September. What you sow in that period is harvested between October and December. People spend the first two months of the year deciding what to grow, looking at seed catalogs, and preparing the soil to be ready to plant in March.
A vegetable planting calendar can be bought online or at a local nursery. It is important to keep in mind that the calendar is not perfect. The dates are for reference only and may vary from one year to another as some seasons may begin earlier or later than expected.
Since the dates are estimations only, people should decide to plant earlier or later depending on the climate during any given year. Recommended dates in the calendar are based on the normal trends in season changes observed in previous years.
The main purpose of this calendar is to remind you and guide you through your vegetable planting experience.
We have put together more details to give you an idea of what a vegetable planting calendar looks like.
* January is a month of preparation. You can select what you want to grow using seed catalogues, buy gardening accessories and prepare a compost bin.
* February: It is time to get the garden ready and remove any weeds or undesirable plants. To increase the amount of nutrients in the soil, you can mix it with a layer of compost. Some people will also start to sow some seeds.
* In March, it is time to officially get started. You can sow the seeds and transplant what you have grown in pots and indoors.
* You can continue sowing some seeds in April. Sowing more than once allows you to harvest throughout the spring season.
* May: The time to harvest the spring crop is already there. You can harvest until early July and store the crop carefully to make sure it does not rot.
* August-September: It is time to sow the fall crop, which will be ready before the frost arrives.
* October to December is the time when you harvest your fall plantations.
Essentially, this is what a vegetable planting calendar can help you accomplish.
Alan has experimented with growing various fruits and vegetables, and as an amateur gardener, has overcome many problems, ones that you probably may face. Whether it is growing broccoli, spinach, squash, leeks, radishes, rhubarb, eggplant or even growing watermelon, Alan has tried them all. Check out what Alan thinks and learn from his mistakes.
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