Gardening Calendar Month by Month
March 11, 2018Garden planning calendar
Some folks might think that the garden calendar is only a few months long and for some of us that’s true. For many gardeners though, our calendar is a perpetual year round compulsion to grow and care for our leaf babies. There’s always something to be done; whether it’s attending an event, caring for our houseplants, starting new plants for our outdoor garden, preparing our soil or harvesting. For the professional or hobbyist our calendar is always full… and as the year goes on, we get a little… crazy.
At the same time we’re working on this post, we’re also adding a gardening events calendar to leafbabies.com to highlight some of the special occasions in our gardening year. If you have an event that you think should be added, let us know in the comments section, twitter or facebook.
Many of the events on our calendar are growing zone specific, that is, for USDA hardiness zone 6b where we get frost from October to May. You’ll likely need to adjust according to your zone
Garden Calendar Events For January
The dead of winter. The holidays are done and now it time to relax and really get started gardening. Use this time to fill your new calendar with all the plans you have for the year. Set goals, learn from last season and make resolutions.
- Outdoor garden planning
- Care for plants overwintering indoors
- Seed catalogs
- New Years
Garden Calendar Events For February
Now’s the time where we get the spring itch. The days start to get a little longer, and we need to tend our indoor gardens a bit more frequently. Some of our spring crops can be started as early as February
- Buy seeds
- Groundhog day
- Valentine’s day
- Start seeds indoors of spring planting
- Tool inventory
Garden Calendar Events For March
If you live in a colder climate March can be as frustrating as sand in a bathing suit. The days start to get longer but it’s still cold and there may be snow and you want to go outside but its likely you’ll only get a couple really good days.
- Start seeds indoors of spring planting
- Replace worn / broken tools
- Clean / prepare garden beds
- Saint Patrick’s day
- Tap trees
Garden Calendar Events For April
Game on, but hold on to your hat. The USDA calendar says April 15th is our last frost date but experience tells us to wait for May to put anything in the ground. Thank goodness because there’s still a ton of work to do to be ready for that. Plus April can be a very windy month and for new plants this can be dangerous.
- Harden indoor seedlings and starts
- Direct sow spring seeds
- Prepare garden beds
- Amend soil
- Earth day
- Arbor day
Garden Calendar Events For May
Time to get busy. It seems like we’ve got ton to do outside, but there’s not a lot on the plan. Sure we put a lot of our plants in the ground, but is that all? Nope May is Christmas for a lot of gardeners especially with the special events on our calendar.
- Transplant starts and seedlings in the garden
- Mother’s day
- RHS Chelsea flower show
- World naked gardening day
Garden Calendar Events For June
Summertime! June, July and August are the best. We worked hard for nine months to really enjoy these three. If we did it right, these are the least intense months when we spend the most time outside tending our leaf babies, and tasting the fruits of our labor.
- Monitor for pests
- Plant late season / fast maturing veggies
- Pull weeds
- Fathers’ day
Garden Calendar Events For July
- Monitor for pests
- Fertilize / Amend soil
- Pull weeds
- Independence day
Garden Calendar Events For August
- Monitor for pests
- Harvest
- Plant cold season crops
- Fertilize / Amend soil
- Pull weeds
Garden Calendar Events For September
Now’s the time on the calendar where things start to get BUSY! Harvest is getting started, days are getting shorter, and we’ve got to balance between caring for our outdoor harvest and starting to prep for Fall.
- Harvest
- Pull weeds
- Canning
- Labor day
Garden Calendar Events For October
Pumpkin spice everything. Is it just us or does everything come in pumpkin spice flavor in October now? No time to talk, we’ve got a crazy schedule now. There’s only 52 weeks in a year what do you want from us?
- Harvest
- Pull weeds
- Harden plants for indoor overwintering
- Canning
- Halloween
Garden Calendar Events For November
We’re just about at the brink of insanity. We’re probably still sore from harvesting (and maybe have a little leftover) and now we cook! but wait, there’s leaves. And the beds need tending, and the trees need covering and the plants need to come inside. What recipe did we make that everyone loved last year? Don’t forget the bulbs need to go in the ground. Oh and remember aunt so and so, she loves pumpkin pie and your fresh sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving.
- Clean beds
- Cover trees
- Plant bulbs
- Mulch leaves
- Bring plants indoors
- Thanksgiving
Garden Calendar Events For December
We’re frazzled, we’re spent and next… Christmas shopping. And then, someone has to tell us to be careful with the poinsettia… they’re poisonous… Which is about when we snap.
- Stabilize gas powered tools for winter
- Fertilize indoor plants
- Christmas
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