A Comprehensive Guide to Planting Calendars for Year-Round Growing Success
& a seasonal garden planning guide
Planting calendars are where the Virgos (sun & rising here) of the gardening world shine. We love Excel. I cringe every time I hear someone say they just use “chaos gardening” as their “plan”. It may work for them but if you have dreams of year-round gardening it starts here. Planting calendars created in winter during my spring and summer garden planning sessions has been the difference between growing into winter months and ending my homegrown harvests in September.
Our garden is more than a hobby here on the homestead. I’m sure you can relate. We may not be growing all the produce our family can eat in a year or have unrealistic goals like that, but we do work really hard to plan, grow and preserve as much as possible. A thoughtful planting calendar is the key.
What is a Planting Calendar?
A planting calendar is a way to organize when to start indoors or direct sow each crop that you want to grow. Creating a planting calendar is a crucial step in the garden planning process, one that I find is often overlooked. I guess most folks aren’t as energized by spreadsheets and color-coded notes as I am? It doesn’t have to be that nerdy, so if you’re one of the people who stays as far away from spreadsheets as possible, I’ve got you. Keep reading.
Include some or all of the following info, depending on how detailed you like to be:
seed company
variety
number of seeds planted
number of transplants desired
date planted (if different from planned)
projected potting up dates
projected transplant dates
succession dates
Benefits of using a planting calendar for sustainable homesteading
The main goal of a planting calendar is to organize all of your seeds by date and how/where they will be started. This allows you to “grab and sow” when it comes time to start seeds - you won’t need to sit down each week and ask yourself what and how much you need to sow.
Planting calendars are an example of “think smarter not harder” in the garden. Taking the time during the off-season, AKA winter, to plan out your garden throughout the year will help ensure that you have a year-round garden.
Some other benefits of creating a planting calendar:
Less overwhelmed while planting
An intentional seasonal approach to planting that maximizes garden yield by planning multiple plantings of the garden
Optimize planting time
Avoid starting seeds too early and having to pot up multiple times indoors
Plant at the best time for your climate to ensure harvest, which is especially difficult during spring and fall!
Stay on top of gardening tasks like fertilizing seedlings, potting up, and transplanting
Prioritizing and organizing tasks so you always know what you need to get done
Planting calendars are essential to making the most of the year in terms of growing outdoors in Columbus, Ohio (where I live) and similar zone 6a gardening climates (or colder climates). We have a pretty long growing season (number of days between last spring frost and first fall frost) but it’s just May through mid-October. By getting organized in January when we start our first seeds, we can extend our growing season from March through November (and sometimes into December). That’s without row covers, greenhouses, hoop houses or cold frames. It’s not magic, it’s just strategic planning - planting the right crops at the right time and planning ahead.