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Click HERE to link to a copy of our farm planning and planting calendar. This is our scheduled planting and harvesting calendar for the farm and can be adapted to fit your garden's needs.
Please note a number of things in the document (currently in an Excel spreadsheet format):
First, this calendar is just a guideline--please change dates and planting schedules to fit your needs. Remember, you can plant each crop several times at one or two week intervals to ensure a continuous harvest for your family.
Second, here's a legend to the phrases used:
- Dates to/after Frost--The first line under the dates on this spreadsheet has a lot of numbers on it (some of which are grayed out). These numbers refer to our estimated last spring frost and first fall frost in Westchester County (specifically up at HHF). Ungrayed out weeks (starting in mid May) are weeks after the last frost (note the numbers start counting from 1 up at this point). Grayed out weeks are weeks where a frost is likely (note that the numbers count down towards the last anticipated frost).
- Plant Families/Ordering of the Vegetable List--We do all our garden crop rotations by plant families (we group all of the vegetables into 5 plant family groups). The veggies on this list are split into these rotation groups, but you should set up whatever plant rotation works for you!
- Start Seeds--We refer here to starting seeds in an inside space (greenhouse, mini hoop-house, classroom windowsill) to get a jump start on the season. If your plans involved buying started plants from a local farmer or garden center, you can skip over this step. If you start your own seeds, one week before transplanting the starts into the garden, you need to begin the process of toughening up the plants (this is called "hardening off" and there are numerous methods of doing this).
- Prepare Soil--This is when we get the soil ready for seeding. Here on the farm, we ideally do this a couple weeks prior to planting, since our soil is covered by cover crops (plants that grow in the winter to protect from erosion) and we need a few weeks for those crops to start to break down. If you have a new garden and/or sod on your garden, you may want to also do this a few weeks before planting. If you have an established, cleared spot, you can prepare soil and plant on the same day. Right before planting, we will usually retill or weed the soil to kill any baby weeds before we put our plants or seeds into the ground.
- Direct Seed--This planting method involves planting seeds straight into the ground (at their recommended depth/spacing).
- Transplant Starts--This planting method involves planting started plants into the ground.
- Mulch--We mulch a number of our crops for both weed control and to create a microclimate more suitable for the plants. We mulch cool weather crops with hay or straw in the summer to keep the soil temperature lower, and we mulch hot weather crops with black plastic (we are trialing regular plastic as well as biodegradable corn and paper based mulches).
- Trellis--For tall growing crops.
- RC (Row Covers)--We cover some of our crops in the spring to prevent beetle damage.
- Repot Seedlings--Some of our started plants (from the greenhouse or windowsill) grow really fast and may need to be transplanted from their original container to a larger container prior to making it out to the garden.
- Harvest--These dates of course will vary, depending on your own growing micro-climate and the weather!
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