One of my recurring New Year's Resolutions, it seems, is always to try to get better organized. I always feel like I am (severely) lacking in that department and I rarely seem to get better each year. So, I'm always looking for tools to help me get organized and keep me on track with the things I want to accomplish each year... and that includes gardening too.
One tool that is extremely helpful to me in planning when to start seeds (both inside and outside) and to help me to know when it might be best to plant the garden each year and to stay on track of planting times is GardenPlantingCalendar.com.
If you are someone who wants to be super organized, or someone who doesn't want to spend the time and effort to manually try to calculate when to start seeds or plant things in your garden, take a look at GardenPlantingCalendar.com. It's super easy to use and will create a custom planting calendar just for your US location, what you want to grow, and how you want to grow it. There are no manual calculations of any kind and it's as easy as checking off some boxes and pushing a button or two!
In a nutshell, the website calculates your average frost dates (based on data collected from NOAA weather stations throughout the US) and automatically calculates the best dates for your location & the types of plants you want to grow - both for starting seeds (indoors and directly outside in your garden) and for when you should be planting seedling and plants out in your vegetable garden too.
When you create an account, you'll be asked to enter in your garden's zip code. The website then automatically calculates your average frost dates (first and last) based on your zip code and corresponding data collected from your closest NOAA weather station over the past 30 years. It will then tell you the average frost dates based on your location and you can select the beginning and ending gardening dates that correspond to the chance of frost happening in your location (10%, 20%, 30%, 40% or 50% >> the system defaults to a 10% chance of frost, but you can override that if you'd like).
Then, you simply select the types of vegetable plants that you want to grow.
Next, you select how you want to grow each type of plant. For example, do you want to start seeds indoors? directly sow seeds outdoors? and/or plant seedlings? If a particular planting method isn't recommended for a particular plant, it will be greyed out, but otherwise you can select any and all types of planting methods for every type of plant you've selected.
The final step is to select when you want to grow each type of plant. You can select to plant/grow in spring, plant successively throughout the garden season, and/or plant/grow in the fall.
Once you go through those three quick steps, the GardenPlantingCalendar.com system creates a custom calendar just for you!
There are three different ways you can view your data: in calendar format, in a list format by week, or in a list format by plant.
If you prefer a standard calendar format, you can select to view your data in a monthly calendar (see a sample month below).
If you prefer a list format ordered by week, you can select to view your data in a list format (see a sample below).
And if you prefer to view your data by plant, you can select that too (see a sample below).
There are 2 different types of accounts available at GardenPlantingCalendar.com (standard and premium) and anyone can try it out for free too (the free trial has a maximum of three plant types that can be selected). Standard and Premium accounts are valid for one year and you can log in any time during your subscription to view or change your planting calendar. Premium accounts can also opt to receive weekly email reminders too!
Would you like to give GardenPlantingCalendar.com a try?
Get 50% off!
Enter the promo code "agrowinggarden" (without the quotes) on GardenPlantingCalendar.com and receive 50% off a standard or premium subscription!
To take advantage of the 50% off offer, simply sign up for an account on GardenPlantingCalendar.com and enter "agrowinggarden" in the promo/discount code field (at the bottom of the second checkout page) and a 50% discount will be automatically applied to your order! My discount code is valid on GardenPlantingCalendar.com through Feb 25, 2015.
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