When Should you Plant?
After you’ve decided on your gardening plan for the year, you’re good to start getting ready to plant your plants. Each area of the country has different planting dates, classified by zones or regions. When it comes to planting a vegetable garden, it’s best to know when your last average frost date is, so that you can plant your plants without worry of them being killed by frost (hopefully, anyway). You can either find out your last average frost date from your local extension office or by using this website.
Vegetables Planted First
As a general guideline, you plant your cold season plants first and the warm season plants closer to when the nights aren’t quite as cool. Cold season plants include your lettuces, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, cabbage, onions, etc. Warm season plants include peppers, tomatoes, beans, etc.
Each plant varies to how long it takes for the vegetables to mature and be ready to harvest, that is why some vegetables and regions are able to have 2 growing seasons and some are not. If you’re growing your plants from seed, you’ll know exactly how long until you’re able to harvest. It’s hard to know how old your plants are when you purchase them from a greenhouse or nursery, though.