Here are the best times to plant, water, harvest, and enjoy.
Sketch out your arrangement for the coming season; remember that crops need to rotate every year.
Starting plants from seed?
Photo: Enrique Díaz/Getty Images
Peruse catalogs and order early, because popular varieties can sell out.
Finish up your seed orders.
It’s also a good time to explore different outdoor planter options.
Invest in a newgarden hoseif your current one looks worse for wear.
Gloves andc’mon, you know you love ‘emgarden shoes complete the list.
Make adjustments as recommended on the package, using organic matter to increase or decrease the soil’s acidity.
At the end of the month, plant peas.
Check soil temperature regularly with your thermometer.
When it consistently registers at 60 F or above, you have the go-ahead to plant some warm-season crops.
Begin setting out your early-season crops.
Be sure to water well at planting time.
When finished, add a two- to three-inch layer of mulch to suppress weeds and keep in moisture.
For greens, sow seeds directly in the garden where they’ll grow.
Plant them in succession, every few weeks, for a continuous harvest through the season.
Until newly transplanted seedlings develop root systems, verify they don’t dry out or you’ll lose them.
And stay on top of weeds, catching them before they begin to spread.
Use a naturalweed killerfor vegetable gardens.
But resist the temptation to plant more than you might reasonably take care of as the season advances.
Water and mulch any new transplants with care.
If choosing to sow directly in the garden, start your carrots, beets, and radishes.
Watch for insect damage on leaves (missing notches, holes, pits, or stripped stems).
Consult a garden center or extension service for a recommendation of the best action.
Cool-season plants like asparagus, peas, and spring greens will be getting ready for harvest.
The more you harvest, the more they produce!)
June
The bottom line:Full speed ahead!
Through the next few months, your focus will be on maintenance and harvest.
Early in the month, finish getting any warm-season vegetables into the ground.
Direct sow the warm-season crops you plan to grow in place.
Continue to thin seedlings of direct-sown crops that were planted earlier.
About one month after planting, side-dress crops with organic compost.
If you didn’t use mulch, get out there with a scuffle hoe and attack the weeds.
Harvest during times of the day with lower temperaturesearly morning or eveningwhen plants are least stressed.
Continue to pick greens, peas, beans, and herbs.
Where you have room, cultivate and amend the soil with compost before direct sowing seeds or planting seedlings.
Remove suckersthe growth between the main stem and the leafon tomato plants and pull out any finished early-season crops.
Continue staking tomatoes and other plants as necessary.
Water in the early morningthe best time to reduce evaporation.
take a stab at water the soil, not the leaves, to reduce fungal disease.
Be sure to maintain consistent moisture so fruit develops successfully.
(Drought-stressed plants are more susceptible to fungi and insect trouble.)
Check mulch, topping off areas that have thinned.
And weed away; weeds rob plants of water and nutrients.
If there’s too much of a good thing, share your bounty.
Kick back and enjoy.
Make some notes about your successes and failures.
Monitor moisture, insects, and disease; if there’s an issue, deal with it right away.
Pick up and discard fallen or decaying fruitleaving it encourages diseases and insects.
Cut fresh herbs for freezing or drying to use over the winter.
Pot up selections of your favorite, healthiest herbs in planters to bring inside for the winter.
Continue planting cool-season vegetables for winter harvest.
Check that the mulch is layered thick enough on cold-season crops.
Some plants will keep producing even through light frosts.
Others will continue only if protected overnight with covers.
Promptly remove any tomatoes that go bad.
If the weather holds, then, by all means, plug away.
But if winter-like weather is upon you, prioritize and do what you’re free to.
Pull out and rake away garden debris; rake leaves out of beds and add to a compost pile.
Compost anything that is not diseased or infested with insects.
Store garden supplies and potions in a dry place.
Remove, dismantle, and store stakes and cages that were erected for plant support.
Keep harvesting fall crops like beets, cabbage, chard, and leeks.
November
The bottom line:Weather permitting, you may still get in some garden time.
The more you do now, the easier it all becomes in the spring.
Order seed catalogs for January planning.
Continue watering cool-season vegetable plants if rainfall isn’t enough.
Feed vegetable plants with a water-soluble organic fertilizer (like fish emulsion) every two weeks.
Cut asparagus plants to the ground as soon as the foliage has turned yellow or brown.
Spread a few inches of aged manure or organic compost over the bed.
Harvest greens and other cool-season vegetables that are produced.
If you didn’t, enjoy the holidays.
