Surprisingly that one is pretty correct. They passed on the early tomato planting date and the late spinach date. Both of which are usually wrong on most calendars.

How is it for the rest of the US?

Looks pretty accurate for my zone!

Nice site! Thanks so much for posting...

Question...when it says to plant something, does this mean to plant seedlings out in the garden, or just the seeds out in the garden?

Thanks in advance,

Pam

It means seeds. Check out the tomato and pepper suggestions. There they specify plants.

Got it...sorry...I didn't get that far down the list...was scanning dates only.

Thanks!!!

Pam

This source would have me planting corn one to one and a half months earlier than any other source recommends. I am right on the line between 7a and 7b.

Jan, I am going to give you a long answer (more like a comment, since you gave us the link without questions) and with a nice little holiday story in it too.

We had been planting by the moon, could be superstition but we figured, why not? The pull of the moon on the tides is real, different water content in the soil with moon phase is also real, so we did it the way some people approach religion, just in case....LOL. It does not cost anything extra and it lets us get organized in the planting, which we do all year round, leafy crops with seeds outside first quarter, fruiting crops (seeds inside) second quarter, root crops and perennials third quarter, and do not plant anything on the last quarter. I liked looking at the moon and thinking, oh, I better get my peas on the ground (or anything, carrot, beets, fill in the blank there...) So we got into the habit of never planting anything on the last quarter of the moon.

This changed recently over the holidays. We drove to New Orleans and brought our seed box with us, all the seeds, just in case. Nothing was really planned before hand, but when we got there, it became obvious that one of the best presents for us to give to a dear older gentleman (he is 88 and still gardening!) was to plant a winter garden for him. The criteria was different this time. Rather than phase of the moon it was more like: will the crops make it even with light frost? does he like these things and will he eat them? will he be able to give them to neighbors (or trade?) if he has an excess? and also very importantly, do we have the seeds for it with us?

So we started planting on the last quarter, when you are NOT supposed to plant. I have to admit I did worry a bit, but we figured, maybe the spirit of good will for the holidays will prevail? So we planted and planted. Well of course, we had to prepare, hand till and amend the beds first. We direct sowed seeds for lettuces (several), spinach (2 kinds), pak choi, carrots (4 types), beets (3 types), radishes (3 types), peas (bush and pole), brussel sprouts, collards, mustards (2 types), turnips, chard, celery, dill, parsley, climbing thyme, lemon balm and chamomile. I also had to stick a few seeds of marigold and sunflowers in the ground, to help make it pretty, attract pollinators and repel/attract pests (I saw those horrible Harlequin bugs along the Mississippi river, they have them too).

At the third day the radishes had sprouted, by the fifth day we had spinach, mustards, beets, later sprouted the collards, peas and bok choi, even the chamomile sprouted before we had to leave! I am also talking almost 100% sprouting rate and so fast! this never happens at home of course. We could not believe how fast and well everything sprouted. It was also very rewarding to see so many sprouts before we had to leave. Carrots have sprouted too (I heard) I think the celery is the only one left to sprout.

All of these were planted at the wrong phase of the moon, so I am no longer going by moon phase to plant. As far as the rest of the information, it does not really work in my zone too well. For example, if I had planted the winter crops by September, they would have all gotten burned and probably not done too well when we got 97F in November a few times. So I planted a lot of things in December and in January (still have a few pole peas to plant). My bush peas and brassicas are out and seem to do well, carrots are up too, beets also, so I am glad I just went by the weather, rather than the moon calendar.

Holtzclaw, I'm in 7b and I agree with you. Especially Eggplant and Peppers which suggest planting (plants) up to six weeks before our average last frost. The soil isn't warm enough for eggplants at that time, so they will just sit there and do nothing if they aren't hit by frost. Can you tell I have tried planting early :~).

Otherwise, the plant dates are close to what I have learned over the past few years.