2022 Growing Calendar

Last night, I spent my time organising and doing an inventory of my seeds. The growing season can often become overwhelming and a lot of new gardeners don’t have a clue when to sow and plant things. I often find that going off the back of the seed packet can be detrimental. Firstly, you really need to know your frost dates. Secondly, a lot of the times, things are started with extra heat and fake light. If you don’t have a heat mat or indoor grow lights, your seedlings will get leggy. Which basically means that they stretch for light and become weak and brittle. So when you come to pot them on, they either snap or get damping off. You want the healthiest and strongest seedlings you can grow.

Below is a growing calendar I have put together that will help you figure out when it’s best to start things off. Gardening is not for the impatient and although I love gardening and getting seeds started, the years have taught me to have some self restraint. A lot of the things catch up in the warmth of spring anyway. Find out your last frost day and then work backwards on the ‘days to maturity’. This will also help you to find a rough estimate of when to start sowing your seeds. So if my last frost date is May 21st and tomatoes take around 65-100 days to maturity, I should sow them indoors around March 17th. I hope that makes sense?

Save this calendar, use it as a rough guide alongside your first and last frost dates and you’ll be on your way to having things growing at the right time. Remember, we all have failures and it’s not the end of the world. Like I mentioned, things will catch up or you can sow them again. If you really can’t wait, I highly suggest picking up some heat mats and a grow light. Trying to start seeds on a cold, lightless windowsills will only end in disappointment. Here are my fave lights and the grow mat I use.