When to Start Garden Seeds
It’s often confusing for new gardeners to decide when to plant seeds for later transplant to the garden. Seed planting timetables are based on your USDA Plant Hardiness Zone which you can determine by ZIP code.. Final spring frost dates guide seed planting times.
If you live in a cold winter region or an area which gets spring frost check out My Garden Planting Calculator at the A Way to Garden blog. For each vegetable, you’ll find a date range for sowing indoors and later transplanting (or sowing) outdoors. You can print the generated table.
If you garden in USDA Climate Zone 9 or 10, which includes much of Southern California, the schedule is different since frost dates may not be a factor. San Diego Seed Company offers a very useful garden calendar with month-by-month reminders of what to plant, how to plant, a succession sowing calendar plus lots of gardening tips. The 2021 Urban Farming Calendar is very helpful for beginners but also prompts and educates veteran gardeners. It is available for purchase on the website.
Your county’s Master Gardener’s website can also guide your seeding planting and garden transplanting. Check the April link for The Master Gardener’s Association of San Diego County. To find your California County’s Master Gardener program, use this link.
If you’re getting a late start or are having trouble finding the seeds you want, consider buying starts of veggies such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. Squash, bean, cucumber and corn seeds are usually direct sown in the garden so no need to plant in advance.
‘Sugar Pearl’ corn in my garden.
