Small Space Gardening

Lesson 3: Plants

Scheduling Crops

If you are to gain the most benefit from square foot gardening, you will use successive planting. This requires that you have transplants ready to go into the garden as soon as one crop finishes. How do you schedule this? This section will provide a brief overview.

Your garden season really starts the first week you plant seeds inside. This week depends on how many weeks your plant needs to grow from seed to a transplant size suitable for planting in the outside garden and your last frost date. Obviously, it doesn’t make sense to start planting seeds in January if they will be ready two months before you can risk them in the great outdoors. If you do, all you have are lanky plants which will not give you the best crop possible.

I strongly advise you to make your final decisions on the crops you want early in January. This gives you enough time to receive the seeds via mail order. Then, mark the last frost day on your calendar, or if you are like me, the earliest weekend you are willing to risk your precious plants to the outside world. Example: Lansing, Michigan’s last frost date is May 15 but I don’t normally risk planting annual flowers or herb crops outside until Memorial Day weekend. This isn’t always reliable. A few years ago I lost all my begonias and impatiens to a mid-June frost!

Use a calendar just for your gardening activities. Mark the last frost date as mentioned. Then study the backs of your seed packet. List each type of seeds you purchased. Then list how many weeks it suggests you start them inside before transplanting to the garden. If you need to grow them for a minimum of 4 weeks, for example, count backwards four weeks from your last frost. Then mark down the date you want to start these seeds. Do this for each type of plant you are starting from seed. Of course, if the seed is to be direct planted, you’ll have to wait until the appropriate time to do so outside.

If you happen to be primarily a perennial grower like I am, you can cheat the system a bit. Many perennial seeds need to be “cold stratified” before they will germinate and grow. If you have the room, you can simply plant this seed outside in early fall after your other plants have finished growing and producing their crops. This usually leads to early spring germination. Many perennials thus treated will bloom the first full growing season. Others still insist on two years before producing flowers. Again, check your seed packets or other garden books for more detailed information.

I tend to try many types of new perennials each year. Many of these won’t be in the local garden centers for several years after the seeds are introduced to home gardeners. I keep a file box with numbered divider cards. The divider cards are numbered 1-12 or whatever the longest period of time I need to start seeds inside before they are ready for transplanting happens to be. Some years 12 are adequate; other years 26 weeks are necessary. Use whatever number works for you. I divide my seed packets into the different sections based on the number of weeks needed. Then, I try to always start the packets the designated weekend. If not, some transplants simply aren’t ready to be put outside until later in the gardening season. Since I am a perennial gardener, this really doesn’t affect my garden much. If I were a crop producer, even a week’s postponement could upset the entire garden plan for the year!

I’ve mentioned it before, but I want to remind you that this course isn’t about growing seeds. I strongly urge you to pick up one of the many books available on seed growing and rely on its information. The square foot gardening book only devotes a chapter to this important topic. There are several books available on this important topic. Look at a few and decide which one is best for you.

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