Build Your Own Butterfly Garden: Planting Schedule

Conventional modern wisdom says this:

Wait to plant seeds until after the last frost date of your area

My area is April 15, but we've had killer frosts up to May 1.

This assumes, however, that you're only planting for summer with plants that aren't frost hardy.

Snapdragons from Lisa Z's website

If you plant early spring, late summer, or even winter (depending on your area), the timing differs!

Look around your area: plants are almost always growing or lying dormant. Even deep winter snows don't kill off the grass, and spring brings flowers buried under those snows.

In fact, some plants require the cold as part of their growth cycle.

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.--Tolkien

Others, like zinnias, will shrivel up and die with the first good frost.

If you find out what plants grow in each season in your area, you can have flowers at the most unlikely times!

I'm still learning about cool weather crops and filling my garden almost year-round.

Lisa Ziegler is a cut-flower expert that I follow who provides growers with all manner of information through books, podcasts, and courses. She has many easy-to-use tools to help you figure out planting schedules in early spring and late winter.

A few items for you to check:

1. Your growing zone

2. Your first and last frost dates

3. Your water cycles (major rains and dry spell times or consistent rain?). This is best learned through experience or asking a local. You could look up data, too.

4. Your soil

(Note: I used Lisa Ziegler's picture and credited her. I don't have any cool season flowers that have flowered this season. I have leaves but no flowers!)