What Can I Plant Now?

When you’re starting your garden there are lots of things to learn about planting, taking care of plants, and making better plans so your garden can succeed. One of the most difficult problems for new gardeners to solve is how to decide what to plant when? You don’t want to waste any time in getting your garden going. But planting at the wrong time can doom your garden to failure. So, if you really want to get started, you have to learn “what can I plant now?” Here are my three questions you need to answer to get to your solution.

Am I Planting Indoors or Out?

The answer to this question is fundamental to knowing what you can plant. Obviously, plants that are not suited to your climate won’t grow well outdoors. Sensitive, warm-weather plants will die if they are planted outside during cold weather. Or rainforest plants in the desert. But, also, plants with deep root systems or that get very tall are difficult to grow to maturity indoors. You may also have pollination problems if you try to grow wind pollinated plants inside.

Many kinds of plants can grow successfully both indoors or out. But this initial and fundamental question is key to knowing what you can’t grow depending on what you choose. For more information on making this choice, check out my Should I Start My Seeds Indoors or Out blog post. It’s also OK to answer “both” if you have that option. Then you will have to answer what can I plant now indoors vs. outside. The answer may depend on how much space you have in each growing location. Once you’ve decided where you’re going to plant, you can move on to the next key question.

What season is it?

The answer to this question is more important for planting outdoors, but it will affect indoor plants to some degree. For outdoor plants, you need to know how much of the growing season is left in your area. You can look up your first and last frost dates in my How Do You Know When to Plant blog post. Once you know your dates, it will inform which plants might work best with the time you have available.

There are options for planting in every season. Don’t think that you can only plant a garden in the spring. If you miss that “window”, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a very successful garden. But it may limit some of your crop choices. There’s no point in planting something outside that won’t get to harvest before you growing season is over. You also don’t want to start seeds too early. Your seedlings will be thin and running out of nutrients before you can plant them outside. Do your research to make sure you are choosing from plants that are appropriate for the season you are currently in.

What crops fit in my window?

Once you know where you are planting and what season you are in, you can figure out how many days you have left in your growing season. Then you can check the days to maturity information for the seeds you have to choose from. If you need more help figuring out how to find this information, check out my How to Read a Seed Packet post. Choose a plant who’s time to grow fits within your growing season “window”.

If your ideal plant is close, but not quite going to be ready to harvest in the time you have, you can consider growing it and providing some season extension. Maybe you’ll get lucky and you will have a late frost. Or you can choose to grow it in a cold frame or hoop house. That will offer some protection if it needs only a few extra days or weeks If you’re really late in planting, you can also consider buying seedlings. That will give your plants a headstart and get them to harvest faster. So, it might not be a good time to plant tomato seeds, but planting a well started tomato seedling that is almost ready to flower, could give you an instant garden success.

Now that you’ve figured out a list of plants that you can plant now and they should have enough time, space, and good growing conditions, you can start to pick your favorites. If the only thing you can plant now is radishes, but you hate them, it’s probably not worth it. But if you have a whole list to choose from, growing the things you’re most excited about will help your garden feel like a success right from the beginning. Happy choosing!

Figured out what to plant, but still don’t quite know how to get started? Don’t worry, my Mission: Healthy Plants mini-course will teach you everything you need to know to have your garden thriving in no time. Check it out!