Planting a Garden? Download a Free Document with Outdoor Sowing Dates Guideline.

It’s that time of the year. New Years Resolutions are made and the goals to obtain them. One of the New Years Resolution is to grow as much food we possibly can and eat from the garden everyday. Is it possible? Is this a realistic goal? Or maybe I should change it to, “take more vacations”? This has been a challenge due to pests, weather, and time. I include time, because I’m not home twenty four hours a day, 365 days a year like the homesteaders you see on YouTube. I have a full time job, run a small business on the side, and manage our homestead. It can be exhausting at times, to the point you don’t want to pick and preserve an endless harvest of delicious sweet plump red raspberries. The goal is to overcome this by working smarter and not harder. The first action is to get organized. We installed a hoop house/ greenhouse last summer and I’m eager to get started on sowing seeds

But first, as an experienced gardener, we must find the first and last frost dates. The first frost date for this area is projected to be mid April. However, I might take it cautiously. Last year we had a surprised hard frost in May. We lost a significant amount of plants that was costly to replace.

The next step after discovering the first and the last frost dates, now we can plan out the sowing and planting dates of our vegetables and/or flowers. When you make a list of what you want to grow, ask yourself if this is what you or your family eats. Everyone’s loves tomatoes, but if you only eat fresh and don’t plan on preserving it into sauces, then maybe twenty four plants is a bit much.

Below is a document with some key growing dates for vegetables and flowers. I’ve created an outdoor sowing date guide for flower and vegetable plants.

The goal is to grow as much food for a year. When I’m planning my garden, I’m also thinking about what meals to make, for example tomatoes. You can create many meals with tomatoes, whether it’s pasta sauce, salsa, pizza sauce, or soups. When I map the garden out, I’d like to grow the ingredients to make the meals. Each family is different, you may not like tomatoes, instead you may prefer squash, or potatoes, then you would grow what your family likes to eat.

Join me on this year on a journey to grow food and eat from the garden daily.