Seed Sowing Schedule {and a Template}
UPDATE:Â You can get my awesome Seed Sowing Calculator where all the leg work is done for you. Punch in your frost dates and let the calculator do all the work for you!
So now that we’ve got our seeds all organized,
Wait. You did organize your seeds, right?
Of course, you did.
Now that the seeds are organized, and I can see just how many I have to sow this year, I sure need to be organized with my planting efforts as well!
If I lack organization, I make mistakes. Planting at the wrong time, missing seeds, or planting too early leads to problems.
In an effort to be proactive, I’ve made a seed sowing schedule that I’ll be using for the next 4 months.
Knowing I won’t want to recalculate planting dates next year, I streamlined the process with a seed sowing schedule.
My Seed Sowing Schedule Experience
I always choose to do my seed sowing on Saturdays and through the use of a template I made this year, will only need to match up dates next year to make this work. (And remove types I choose not to use again or add in new ones.) Piece of cake!
My last frost date is around the last Saturday in March and I stick to that religiously no matter how nice a spring we’re having. In fact, this year, I’m bumping several things like cucumbers and corn back a week or two in the hopes that it will make for a hardier plant (i.e. less susceptible to pest damage).
And as I did with my other homemaking & homesteading binder templates, I’m sharing the free template with you!
Seed Sowing Schedule Template
You can download the photos above by clicking on them. Don’t mind the year on them, its the day and month that matters. If you would like a version that you can edit, you can get it as part of my Homestead Printables Bundle.
Update: I have discovered a great tool and resource for gardening! It is called Seed Time. It uses your zone to help you know when each vegetable should be started. Seed Time also assists with garden planning, succession planting, crop rotation from year to year, seed inventory, and more. If you have a winter garden, there is a feature that helps with that too. It does everything my seed sowing schedule template will do and more. You can still use the my template, but if the other features also sound useful to you, you may want to check it out.
Happy Sowing!
Selinda
Last update on 2024-04-28 at 01:07 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Appreciate this post. Let me ttry it out.
Thank you, I saved the images to my phone to print out later….
No problem with Dropbox. Thanks. I think the template will be a great tool for us. My wife and I have a raised garden bed. There are eight 4 x 4 beds.
We’ve had so many wonderful tomatoes this year. The rareseeds.com provides tomatoes you can’t possibly buy in any store. Since we live in Zone 8, we have a long growing season. Again, much thanks for the template!
Dealing with a little tomato envy here Jon. Ours are loaded… but they’re all green! Now the weather has been cooler and wet so who knows if blight won’t get them before we do. Glad the download worked for you… hope the template does too.
Hi, I wasn’t able to get them to open. Are these still available? Thanks! Shalonne
Yes they are still available. What format would work best for you? It’s odd to me how some people can get them to work and others can’t. Trying to figure out how to get it to work universally is a lot tougher than I had imagined. Sorry for the trouble :/
I tried downloading each version and all open empty or don’t open at all.
We are new to gardening and this info is great! We just started some seeds indoors but it’s hard to keep track of everything! Thanks so much!
This is awesome. Thank you for posting.
Oh and you asked if you can adjust it… Absolutely! It's completely editable after download and once you do that you can record when you planted things this year and make adjustments as necessary.
I'm in Zone 5. I didn't do any of the legwork so far as zone adjustments are concerned. This is more so that once you do the work, you don't have to go back and do it again in successive years. I would encourage everyone to take their micro-climates into consideration (using USDA zones only as a guideline). Whether your garden is north or south facing, gets some shade during certain parts of the day etc…, all should play into when you start seeds or transplant seedlings. For example, my kitchen garden is on a south facing slope and as I watched the snow melt over the past few days, I'm noticing where there some snowy patches remain. Were it a smaller space, I would probably wait on planting warm soil loving seeds like corn and beans a week later than the the recommendations by the USDA. If that all makes any sense 🙂
I do and it's in the file, I just didn't take a screenshot of all the months. Guess I do see how that could be confusing 🙂 I'll add it in.
It's in the file, I just didn't take a screenshot of all the months.
Thank you thank you thank you!
i'm in southeast wisconsin and i would use this for me…we never plant before june 1st for most things
She says the last frost is at the end of May so I'm guessing she is slightly north of Illinois somewhere?
awesome – thanks!
Yes, I got my seeds organized last year but it never occurred to me to chart them for seed sowing. Brilliant! I will attempt to revise yours for Florida temps and if doesn’t work, I’ll make my own. What I needed was the IDEA. Many thanks.
P.S. Your chart is making the rounds on Facebook.
What zone is this for and how can I adjust it for mine?
Do you not plant anything in May?
Wheres May?
docx file worked for me, pages file did not. Thanks
I had no success opening with either…
What is your word processor? Do you think the .docx might work if I emailed to you? If so just let me know- (no need to make your email address public either. I can see it here.)
I would prefer a pdf file. Anything other than that I have difficulty with . I don’t like Office — too complicated for me so I didn’t bother upgrading it. Anything else I just generally copy/ paste to word pad and print.
oopsie.. I forgot to thank you so much for your kind gesture 🙂
PDF is uploaded 🙂 Link is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2i6yrk1ykjroymc/Seed%20Sowing%20Template%20%28SHARE%29.pdf
And you’re welcome! Take Care AnnMarie!
I got it! Thanks again ever so much. 🙂
Success with the .docx file! Thanks!
How was the formatting? Everything lined up ok?
Just fine,Thanks again!
You have your last frost date as March. Don’t you mean May? Mine is May 15. Just curious…
Oops. Thanks Ginny! 🙂
This looks like a great tool, but can’t get it to download as a file that I can change. Just downloads as pictures of what you have. Guess I’ll have to make it from scratch. Thanks for the idea.
I had a comment on FB where they were having trouble with the download too. I wondered if something like zamzar would work since it is a .pages document.
I have other templates loaded to Google Docs and they were editable. I don’t know what the difference is here :/ I’m going to keep trying to figure out a change besides iCloud. Everyone who has an iTunes/Apple ID account can use that, but I don’t like the thought of putting a document out there than just anyone can edit from the internet. It would take just one wrong person to put something questionable in there and I don’t have time to babysit a document 🙂
I’ll keep looking. Sorry for the trouble!
THANKS! I have it now.
I am always jealous of long garden periods. Would you believe many people refuse to put tomatoes in the ground until June 1st around here? Late May is our last frost date- making a much shorter growing season. It is SO frustrating. Enjoy those many extra months of growing things!
I wonder if you’re reading it wrong… I start the seeds early, but they don’t get transplanted in the soil until last week of May. We don’t get tomatoes until nearly Sept. I try to be glad we even get that much because I’ve seen folks in the NW who can’t grow them at all without a greenhouse.
I heart Brandywines! 🙂
Oh I did! I missed the INDOOR column! Well in THAT case, you and I are similarly lined and will likely be harvesting the same things at the same time! Brandywine lovers unite!
You're the best.