zone 8b- "early" planting?

[ms.shell]

I am so confused about the spring/fall garden schedule. I thought I was supposed to plant greens/etc mid october, but most of it didnt come up and I read that others in my zone were harvesting peas and stuff while i was planting them. Now my lfd is March 15, and so I know I can put tomatoes, peppers, zukes, cukes, etc in the ground then. But can I plant cooler season stuff....when? The last extreme cold snap finally knocked out our pepper and herb plants. The only (annual) things growing now are a few peas that did come up, one nice (small) patch of lettuces, cilantro, and the garlic and onions seem to be okay. There is LOTS and LOTS of empty garden space and I am wondering when I can plant SOMETHING. I have lots of packets of lettuces, spinach, chard (which I have not been able to grow successfully yet), more peas, mustard, stuff like this...when can/should i put this in the ground?
ALso, now IS the right time to be starting tomatoes and peppers indoors, correct? TIA

[AlwaysByMySide]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with "the itch"! All this empty space and I just want to fill it up with stuff already! Where is spring?!

Lettuce, spinach, chard, stuff like that should be fine to go ahead and plant. I've got some going outside right now.

I'm in zone 7A, and will start my tomatoes and peppers beginning the first week of February (I do six seeds of four types of pepper or tomato at once, get 'em going, then the next week, do four more types, etc.), so I'd imagine that you'd be fine starting yours now. Of course, I'm always accused of starting mine way too early, but I miss my fresh-picked tomatoes over the winter!

You might also want to try wintersowing some stuff. Check out wintersown.org , and send in for the free tomato seeds to try wintersowing.

[westcoastlady]

Oh my gosh... I just read this forum to take the itch off my spring fever!! You guys can plant in Feb!!!!! I am a zone 0a (yep that's a zero) and we start planting in June and harvest late Aug/early Sept. I am so jealous!!

[lakeruby]

Hi there-
This is an excellent resource, written especially for our area: http://www.amazon.com/DOWN-EARTH-GAR.../dp/057803946X

In the back there is a planting calendar where he talks about when to start different seeds, when to plant outside, when to harvest, etc...it's been really helpful for me!

The farm I work at has already started early-crop tomato seeds (Stupice is their early favorite) and they will plant them outside in early februray and plan to cover them if frost is expected. The earlier you can get summer things planted outside around here (tomatoes especially) the happier they will be-- even if you have to cover them occasionally. Peppers really like warm weather, so I wouldn't start them right now-- maybe wait a month? You could probably plant them outside in a month, but they won't really grow or produce until the nights get warmer. Tomatoes don't like the hot as much-- we start them outside very early and the really strong production season for tomatoes seems to be over by late June/early July around here. Many of the plants will stay alive, and the smaller/grape tomatoes will keep producing, but once it gets to the really hot part of the summer, disease seems to set in on the plants (we're organic).

I think you could plant some greens now. We planted 3 rows of lettuce seedlings the other day (tiny, tiny ones) and you can definitely start asian greens, mustards, etc. In my experience, the greens don't like the heat very much, so they are definitely a cool weather crop in this area. I'm not too sure about peas....the ones we had were killed when we had a cold snap recently (15 nights below freezing!)-- because they are so tall we couldn't cover them.

[rhianna813]

I am in western Oregon and considered zone 8b. Here are some planting guides I use for spring and fall/winter planting. Our main issue here is the rain which can kill cold hardly plants so we ( I am learning) need to cover plants during the winter months.

These guides are *ideal* for any pacific NW gardens!

Spring: http://www.seedambassadors.org/Mainp...ngcalendar.htm

http://www.eugeneweekly.com/springpl...ide/index.html

Fall/Winter:
http://www.seedambassadors.org/Mainp...leJune2007.htm

http://westsidegardener.com/quick/winter_veggies.html

This looks likes a very generic zone 8 planting guide:

http://www.veggieharvest.com/Vegetab...ting-calendar/

The thing I learned the most about fall/winter gardening is that plants need to be planted well before fall. They will do most of their growing before fall hits. This is true for most of brassica plants.

I think in zone 8 or higher leafy greens can almost be grown year round if they are cold hardy and covered with a cloche or something to provide some protection in the coldest months or hard rains.

I've just noticed that some things people say can be planted in Feb or early March just tend to grow pretty slow and don't really take off until later in the spring. So I am not sure if I'm getting a leg up or not LOL

Hope this info helps

Rhianna

[changingseasons]

Originally Posted by rhianna813

I am in western Oregon and considered zone 8b. Here are some planting guides I use for spring and fall/winter planting. Our main issue here is the rain which can kill cold hardly plants so we ( I am learning) need to cover plants during the winter months.

These guides are *ideal* for any pacific NW gardens!

Thanks- those are fantastic links!!! Also- holy crap. I'm supposed to be planting my broccoli outside already? Ack! I need to get my beds cleaned up and some new ones built!

[dogmom327]

Originally Posted by changingseasons

Thanks- those are fantastic links!!! Also- holy crap. I'm supposed to be planting my broccoli outside already? Ack! I need to get my beds cleaned up and some new ones built!

My thoughts exactly! Fingers crossed for some dry weather this weekend.

[425lisamarie]

Kids and I just planted brocolli and lettuce today, and started our carrots inside. Yikes how is it february! I have my grow light in the garage and i need to hurry with the tomatoes!