Veggie help for a zone 5er?

I am in a warm zone 6. I am still sure you should plant your peas, lettuce, and spinach outdoors right away if possible, though, because we plant ours starting in February (This year it was early March due to late snows and my busy-ness) Same time with onions. I always grow my onion from seed--but make sure you get a variety that does well in the North, because day length is critical for onions. (Johnny's Selected Seeds is a great source for Northern-adapted variteies of all sorts of plants--most of their onions are NO good for my area! They show specific ideal latitudes for each of their varieties.)

Besides being tricky as far as varieties, onions are picky about fertility and drainage and hate weeds, and need to be started very early, which I think are a few reasons they are hard for growers in many parts of the country to grow.

My carrots and beets are already planted too, and you should try getting them in the ground well before the last frost date.

I think the indoor starting is questionable. Especially broccoli, which goes into the ground as ready (6-8 week old) transplants about three weeks before the last frost date. Pepper want eight weeks growth before planting--and a northern grower needs all the hot season possible to mature peppers. Tomatoes need a bit less time than peppers indoors, but just beware of the short season issues that make it hard for hot-season crops to produce before the early fall weather comes. Direct-seeding any of these will just be too slow, BTW.

I am Zone 5 but not an experienced gardener. I have my tomatoes started inside and planted lettuce, dill, and cilantro last weekend.

Great, thanks everyone! I think I will just wait a bit and plant everything right outside. I'll have to remember to start sooner with the inside starting next year. We're going to build our beds this weekend! (If it ever stops raining, that is.)

I'm thinking you have grandiose plans for a very small lot. Even with 16 squares, you'd be able to plant like one plant of each variety in each square, which wouldn't yield enough for a meal of any particular veggie. I'd cut back your plant choices to maybe 3 and do a row of each. Squashes take a lot of room, as does the trellis used for beans and peas. You'd be able to stake or cage 1 tomato plant or one pepper plant per square to give the plant enough room to grow. I'm not terribly familiar with the philosophy of sfg, but I've gardened a lot, and had good success generally.

I"ve had best luck buying plants rather than starting from seed either inside or out (with the exception of beans, peas, carrots and radishes). You're assured to get healthy seedlings that aren't spindly or leggy, and just as many as you need without extras. I'm in zone 5 in NH and we start the hot veggies (tomato, pepper, zucchini, summer squash) on memorial day. Colder plants (carrot, peas, beans, leafys) can go in a couple weeks sooner.

I'm building a few cold frames this year to extend my growing season. That may be fun for you too!

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Thanks, that helps a lot. I think we are going to do three 4 x 4s, so that should give us some more room. We will probably build a frame against one side of one of the garden for squash, or other plants to grow up. I'm excited!