Garden Schedule

Average last spring frost May 10th.

January-February

Order seeds and garden supplies. Prepare lights and tools for starting seeds. Clean and maintain garden tools.

March

Frost seed white dutch clover in yard and garden paths where weeds are under control.

Finish pruning fruit trees. Fertilize when buds start to swell.

Second week: Start indoors, Onions, brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, kale, collards, kohlrabi,etc.), parsley, lettuce, celery root.

Plant outdoors as soon as soil is workable and reaches 40 degrees: mustard, chard, onion sets, kohlrabi, radish, arugula, peas, fennel, parsley, parsnips, leeks, raddichio, beets, kale, rhubarb, asparagus, shallots, spinach.

Third week: Start indoors, peppers, eggplant.

Plant seeds in garden: beets, chard, carrots.

April

Plant fruit trees.

Mulch garden paths.

Turn in cover crops or top dress beds with compost.

Begin watering if weather is dry.

First week: Start indoors, tomatoes

Second week: transplant onions, leeks, plant potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes.

Third week: transplant brassicas, lettuce, chickory, plant strawberries.

May

First week: plant warm season crops like beans, corn, summer squash, last spinach.

Second week: (Watch weather forecast) transplant tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, hill potatoes

Third week: mulch potatoes, plant winter squash, transplant sweet potatoes. Last corn planting.

June

First week: prune tomatoes, mulch tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, set up trellis or cages and begin training plants to support. Be sure your support can hold the weight of mature plants. Better to overbuild than have it collapse.

Second week: start fall plantings! Plant carrots now through early July for fall harvests of the best carrots of the year.

Fourth week: garlic harvest? Plant fall turnips, radish, choi.

July

Second week: plant last cucumber, summer squash, storage beets, transplant broccoli, cabbage, collards, cauliflower.

Third week: Plant Spinach, arugula, rutabaga

Fourth week: Last planting of carrots, beets, chard, beans, basil.

Pull Onions

August

Till beds for garlic and overwintered spinach.

Third week: Last planting of lettuce, arugula, choi, turnip, radish. Plant cover crops on unused areas of garden.

Fourth week: Plant cold hardy crops now through late September for season extension under low tunnels.

September

Third week: plant overwintered spinach, harvest sweet potatoes before soil temperatures drop below 60 degrees. First frost?

October

Second week: harvest winter squash, harvest fall roots before temperatures drop below mid twenties. Japanese turnips are most sensitive to cold damage. You can hill them to delay harvest.

Fourth week: plant garlic, dig last potatoes.

November

First week: plant garlic, dig last potatoes. Mulch carrots, parsnips, burdock, etc. that will be left in the ground over winter.

Third week: mulch garlic after ground freezes.

Local Resources

AB Hatchery Nursery- 916 East Grove, Good locally owned source for seeds, potatoes, potting soil, transplants, tools, etc.

Twin City Wood Recycling- 1606 West Oakland. 827-9663. Will deliver ISU farm compost.

Bloomington and Normal farmers markets- diverse transplants