Gardening Pacific Northwest - bedding plants

[Q & A]

When to start bedding plants

Question: We have just moved here from the east coast and plan to grow a flower and vegetable garden in our new home. When are bedding plants started in this climate?

Helen says: You will find that, compared to the rest of the country, this is a most forgiving climate to garden in. Changes in season are generally gentle and gradual, giving busy gardeners a fair bit of leeway in planting times.

Here's a basic planting schedule that works for me:

During the latter part of January or early in February I aim at seeding a few cool-growing flowers such as pansy, schizanthus and carnation for early bloom in pots and baskets. At the same time I'll seed hardy flowers and vegetables for late March or early April transplanting. These include lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, leek, onion, snapdragon, stock, larkspur and sweet pea.

In February I'll sow indoors more lettuce, dwarf tomatoes for pots, celery, statice, dusty miller, pinks, ornamental peppers, geranium, and heliotrope. And depending upon the weather I'll seed hardy vegetables into frames -- spinach, corn salad, green onion, early carrots, radishes, bok choy and shungiku (edible or garland chrysanthemum, chop suey greens). In the warmest area of the Northwest broad beans can be sown outdoors in February.

My March indoor seedings will usually include lettuce, eggplant and peppers, tomatoes, aster, lobelia, coleus, salvia, dahlia, petunia, impatiens, cosmos and celosia. These will be transplanted outdoors in May. In March outdoor sowings can include broad beans and peas, carrots, kohlrabi, spinach, parsley, poppies, calendula -- and sweet peas if I haven't seeded them indoors.

Indoors in April I start marigolds and zinnias, fall and winter cabbage, pumpkin, cucumber, squash, melons, and tender herbs such as basil and marjoram -- and more lettuce. April catches the spillovers from outdoor seedings not completed in March, and continues with beets, parsnip, dill, coriander (cilantro), nasturtium, candytuft, cornflower, godetia, clarkia, alyssum and sunflower.

May is the month for seeding outdoors heat lovers such as beans, basil, corn and squash. During May, outdoor seedings can also be made of many fall and winter vegetables such as fall and winter cabbages, overwintering cauliflower and sprouting broccoli, greenlof chicory and kale.

Between mid-June and mid-July I seed lettuce, carrots, beets, kohlrabi, bok choy, Chinese cabbage and early broccoli outdoors for fall and winter eating, and flowering kale and cabbage for winter color in the garden. This is the time also to sow winter pansies, and biennial flowers such as wallflowers for spring bloom.

In early August I sow corn salad and spinach for fall, and lettuces for transplanting into frames in September or early October and winter harvesting.

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