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metta2006

What to plant now? - zone 8

metta2006
14 years ago

Hi,

It's my first time to plant anything.

I live in western BC, lower mainland, similar climate to Seattle, WA. It looks like it's zone 8. According to this guide, it looks like it's too late to plant seeds of carrots, broccoli, peas, cabbage. Is it really so?

http://www.veggieharvest.com/vegetable-planning/zone-8.html

Can you tell me what seeds I can plant now? Is there a website where there is more comprehensive lists of veggies with schedules? I'm going to plant some in a rasied bed, and some in the ground.

Thanks so much.

Comments (8)

  • marlingardener
    14 years ago

    Metta,
    We're in zone 8, too, but a LOT different than your climate (want to send us a little of your rain and cooler temperatures?).
    I would think that you could put out tomato, eggplant, and pepper transplants (not seeds) now and have them produce. We just planted cantaloupe and honeydew melon seeds, which can stand the warmer temps as long as they have moisture. You might also be able to put out cucumbers, but I'm not sure. However, never planted, never harvested!
    Do you have a local nursery that supplies vegetable transplants? If so, they are not only a source of plants, but of information. Good luck with your first garden, and remember, we all make mistakes and it is very important to keep trying. We learn from mistakes and eat our successes!

  • skagit_goat_man_
    14 years ago

    Metta, we're on Whidbey Island just south of you. Right now you can plant peas, carrots, beets, scallions, and in a couple of weeks beans. Broccoli, cabbage and other brassicas can go in(can go out in March most years) but for your first year I'd suggest buying plants at a garden center. If you are growing outside I'd skip the eggplant. They just aren't a very successful plant up here. Cukes I'd plant out in mid-June. But every nook and crannie has it's own weather and you'll just have to have fun trying different plants at different times over the years. A good book to read this winter would be Steve Solomon's Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. The zone system, you and I are in 8, is pretty useless in my opinion. It classifies areas by winter low temps. As the poster above said a Texas zone 8 is a different animal than a BC zone 8. It's all a learning experience and most of it is fun. Tom

  • Karen Pease
    14 years ago

    Yeah, climate zones are only useful for discussions of winter low temperatures. The southern coast of Iceland, Tucscon, AZ, and Baton Rouge, LA are all zone 8, but good luck trying to grow the same stuff in all three ;)

  • cyrus_gardner
    14 years ago

    Karenrei is right. Zoning is crude and based on winter lows aand the late expected frost date. So , not all zone 8s or 7s etc are created the same. I have been to Seattle, the summers up there are much cooler than where I am in Ga but both are zoned as 8.

  • dutchess_9
    14 years ago

    Interesting discussion about zones...I didn't know it was based on winter lows/frost dates. I always wondered how places in Canada could be an 8 and I live in Florida and I'm an 8. Is you zone near the coast? I wondering if the warm ocean in the winter allows you to have warmer winters???

    Here is a link that might be useful: How my garden grows!

  • jwr6404
    14 years ago

    Metta
    Check out www.fullcircleseeds.com They are a Nursery losated in Sooke,BC. They have a nice website with a good variety of Vegetables and Tomatoes that grow in your area.
    Jim

  • mauirose
    14 years ago

    But every nook and crannie has it's own weather

    no truer words spoken! Still, it can be fun to see what zone you are on the AHS heat map-i'll link to it below. Combining the two zone ratings provides a much more accurate picture of the growing conditions.

    So marlingardener is probably somewhere around an 8/8 and metta might be more like an 8/3 or even 8/2? (Just guessing, hope my bad geography isn't showing). Explains why eggplant might be a little more difficult for metta to grow.

    So far i haven't seen the heat zones being used much, too bad. You can read more about the map was created and what it means here:

    http://www.ahs.org/publications/heat_zone_map.htm

    Here is a link that might be useful: AHS heat map

  • skagit_goat_man_
    14 years ago

    Seeing that on the heat zone map I'm in zone 2 probably has something to do with my problems growing eggplant. Tom