Hey everyone,
I Live in southern Michigan, this is my first year putting in a garden... is it too late for seeds? Do I need to do plants at this point?
Not planning on a huge garden for this first year, just a few of a bunch of different veggies.
Carrots,beets, potatoes( I have seed potatoes from my father in law), lettuce, onions, peppers, corn, beans, zucchini, pumpkins, tomatoes, broccoli.
whats the word?
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
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Hi and welcome to the Forum!
Re: Carrots, beets, potatoes( I have seed potatoes from my father in law), lettuce, onions, peppers, corn, beans, zucchini, pumpkins, tomatoes, broccoli.
It is too late for a lot of seeds, especially the things that like cold weather and the ones that are very slow. So cool weather crops are carrots, beets, lettuce, and broccoli. All of those except the lettuce are also kind of slow. Peppers and tomatoes are warm weather but slow. Peppers are about five months from seed to eating a pepper and tomatoes are about four months from seed to ripe tomato. Onions are very slow from seed and the seed is usually planted in the fall to over-winter. So all of those things I would get plants for at this point. But honestly, I might skip the lettuce all together at this point. As soon as it is consistently warm your lettuce will bolt and go to seed and be done. Swiss chard and kale are much better greens for growing through the summer. You can plant the lettuce at the end of summer for a fall crop.
The corn, beans, zucchini, pumpkins are warm weather, quick starting that you could still start from seed. In Michigan, you are probably only 2-3 weeks past the earliest you could have planted those seeds. It is more late for planting the seed potatoes, but you probably still can.
That's a pretty big list, some of which take a lot of room (especially the pumpkins, which are gigantic plants). Do you have a huge garden space?
Good luck with your new garden! Let us know how it goes!
Re: Carrots, beets, potatoes( I have seed potatoes from my father in law), lettuce, onions, peppers, corn, beans, zucchini, pumpkins, tomatoes, broccoli.
It is too late for a lot of seeds, especially the things that like cold weather and the ones that are very slow. So cool weather crops are carrots, beets, lettuce, and broccoli. All of those except the lettuce are also kind of slow. Peppers and tomatoes are warm weather but slow. Peppers are about five months from seed to eating a pepper and tomatoes are about four months from seed to ripe tomato. Onions are very slow from seed and the seed is usually planted in the fall to over-winter. So all of those things I would get plants for at this point. But honestly, I might skip the lettuce all together at this point. As soon as it is consistently warm your lettuce will bolt and go to seed and be done. Swiss chard and kale are much better greens for growing through the summer. You can plant the lettuce at the end of summer for a fall crop.
The corn, beans, zucchini, pumpkins are warm weather, quick starting that you could still start from seed. In Michigan, you are probably only 2-3 weeks past the earliest you could have planted those seeds. It is more late for planting the seed potatoes, but you probably still can.
That's a pretty big list, some of which take a lot of room (especially the pumpkins, which are gigantic plants). Do you have a huge garden space?
Good luck with your new garden! Let us know how it goes!
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applestar
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Welcome!MiGarden wrote:
I Live in southern Michigan,
...
Carrots,beets, potatoes( I have seed potatoes from my father in law), lettuce, onions, peppers, corn, beans, zucchini, pumpkins, tomatoes, broccoli.
Do you have cool summers there? Mostly 70's to low 80's day and 50's to 50's nights. If so, you can probably grow lettuce and broccoli in summer, but otherwise, they are best grown earlier in the season or later for fall harvest.
Corn, beans, zucchini can and should be sown directly in the ground from seeds and you should be fine. Seed potatoes yes. Grow onions from sets (tiny bulbs usually sold in farm stores -- don't trust the ones from big box stores -- they are sometimes wrong region variety)
Grow pumpkins that are fast maturing like Sweet Meat or at least avoid 120-150 day varieties. (When is your first average frost?). If you pre-germinate them before sowing, they will get going faster. You can actually do this with corn, beans, and zucchini also.
Read this thread for more
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... 48&t=57487Get started plants for peppers and tomatoes. If you have cool summers, plant peppers in large dark colored containers (3-5 gal bucket size).
-- ah rainbowgardener posted ahead of me -- but I think we're on the same page.
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Ohio Tiller
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Well if you have had a late spring like most of use you can still get a lot of seeds out. the early cold weather stuff is to late for but everything else will be ok. You can jump start them buy soaking a paper towel lay the seeds out fold it over them and put in a plastic bag for a couple days. They will start sprouting and you can then plant. This also keeps you from wasting time with bad seeds.
We do have a very large garden space that the previous owner used the last 10 years... about 150' x 60'
We have only tilled about half of the space ( 75x60 ) for fear of being overwhelmed with our first garden attempt.
We had a frost last weekend so I have been a little nervous about the planting. Summers can get hot upwards to 90 with some 90+ days. Had a pretty harsh winter so everything seems to be late blooming.
The whole garden is direct sunlight. We are surrounded by corn fields and the soil looks fabulous, do we fertilize/ feed right after we plant?
I know... a million questions LOL
We have only tilled about half of the space ( 75x60 ) for fear of being overwhelmed with our first garden attempt.
We had a frost last weekend so I have been a little nervous about the planting. Summers can get hot upwards to 90 with some 90+ days. Had a pretty harsh winter so everything seems to be late blooming.
The whole garden is direct sunlight. We are surrounded by corn fields and the soil looks fabulous, do we fertilize/ feed right after we plant?
I know... a million questions LOL
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feldon30
- Senior Member
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- Location: Rock Hill, SC
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Wow, that's awesome that you have that much space, and wise that you are not taking on the entire 9,000 sq foot at once! I've got just under 400 sq ft and wish I had about 3 times the space, but maybe not 12 times the space. 
Have you picked up any gardening/farming books? One I like is the Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Ed Smith. He is gardening in Vermont, so he has some good advice for colder climates, and I like his ideals. He uses wide, deep beds for plants, while reserving fairly narrow walkways for people. This both maximizes the use of the available growing space and minimizes soil compaction from walking near plant roots. He is a strong believer in improving the soil first, with compost and other ingredients, and then not needing to apply quite so much fertilizer. He grows cover crops like alfalfa and rye and then turns it under, which enriches the soil quite a bit.
So I just took a shot in the dark at your location (I know your profile says Southern Michigan) and plugged Lansing, MI into the Farmer's Almanac website and got this general planting calendar:
https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planti ... code/48854
Michigan State U offers this Gardening Calendar with lists of what to do in May, June, July, etc. All Things Plants in Ann Arbor, MI publishes their own Calendar with more specific dates.
So, I am not in Michigan (and it does help to get advice from people in your area!) but you seem to be at the tail end of Spring planting season and coming up on Fall. I think you could direct sow Beans, Corn, Cucumbers, Melons, Parsnips, Summer Squash, Watermelons outside right now. I'd find a source for good transplants of Tomatoes and Peppers and go nuts planting those. If you want to grow cole crops like Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, and Cauliflower this fall, I'd start getting a fluorescent light setup so you can start seeds indoors over the next few weeks for a July/August planting (5-6 week old plants). It won't be long til you are sowing Beets, Spinach, and other crops which do best in warm (but not hot) days.
You will definitely want to contact the local County Extension Service. I've had mixed results personally, as sometimes the advice can be more applicable for large scale commercial farming than home gardening, but they are knowledgeable about what insects and diseases you'll need to watch out and plan for and will undoubtedly have a more accurate planting calendar than the examples I provided above.
Take lots of notes or better yet, take lots of pictures including plant tags and hand-written notes. That way I can walk back through a chronology of how my plants looked at different stages, and more importantly see what dates I planted different things so I can see what worked best.
Find a local nursery that knows their stuff and only use the Big Box Stores as a last resort! And if you have any questions about tomato varieties, hit me up! There are over 6,000 known tomato varieties. Friends don't let friends grow Celebrity.
Have you picked up any gardening/farming books? One I like is the Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Ed Smith. He is gardening in Vermont, so he has some good advice for colder climates, and I like his ideals. He uses wide, deep beds for plants, while reserving fairly narrow walkways for people. This both maximizes the use of the available growing space and minimizes soil compaction from walking near plant roots. He is a strong believer in improving the soil first, with compost and other ingredients, and then not needing to apply quite so much fertilizer. He grows cover crops like alfalfa and rye and then turns it under, which enriches the soil quite a bit.
So I just took a shot in the dark at your location (I know your profile says Southern Michigan) and plugged Lansing, MI into the Farmer's Almanac website and got this general planting calendar:
https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planti ... code/48854
Michigan State U offers this Gardening Calendar with lists of what to do in May, June, July, etc. All Things Plants in Ann Arbor, MI publishes their own Calendar with more specific dates.
So, I am not in Michigan (and it does help to get advice from people in your area!) but you seem to be at the tail end of Spring planting season and coming up on Fall. I think you could direct sow Beans, Corn, Cucumbers, Melons, Parsnips, Summer Squash, Watermelons outside right now. I'd find a source for good transplants of Tomatoes and Peppers and go nuts planting those. If you want to grow cole crops like Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, and Cauliflower this fall, I'd start getting a fluorescent light setup so you can start seeds indoors over the next few weeks for a July/August planting (5-6 week old plants). It won't be long til you are sowing Beets, Spinach, and other crops which do best in warm (but not hot) days.
You will definitely want to contact the local County Extension Service. I've had mixed results personally, as sometimes the advice can be more applicable for large scale commercial farming than home gardening, but they are knowledgeable about what insects and diseases you'll need to watch out and plan for and will undoubtedly have a more accurate planting calendar than the examples I provided above.
Take lots of notes or better yet, take lots of pictures including plant tags and hand-written notes. That way I can walk back through a chronology of how my plants looked at different stages, and more importantly see what dates I planted different things so I can see what worked best.
Find a local nursery that knows their stuff and only use the Big Box Stores as a last resort! And if you have any questions about tomato varieties, hit me up! There are over 6,000 known tomato varieties. Friends don't let friends grow Celebrity.
Things like cucumbers and pole bean varieties love to grow vertically on a trellis system. That keeps the produce off the ground making it less subject to slugs and rot and also makes it easier to harvest. I don't have near the space you have for my garden, so I have 3 fairly large trellises that I use to save ground space.MiGarden wrote:We do have a very large garden space that the previous owner used the last 10 years... about 150' x 60'
We have only tilled about half of the space ( 75x60 ) for fear of being overwhelmed with our first garden attempt.
We had a frost last weekend so I have been a little nervous about the planting. Summers can get hot upwards to 90 with some 90+ days. Had a pretty harsh winter so everything seems to be late blooming.
The whole garden is direct sunlight. We are surrounded by corn fields and the soil looks fabulous, do we fertilize/ feed right after we plant?
I know... a million questions LOL
You've gotten some good advice on what to plant now as far as what's not going to do well in the heat of summer and what will work this time of year. If you can contact the previous owner as to how he/she used fertilizer in the garden, that may give you a heads-up on how, when and what to use. If it were me, I'd get a soil test done to see just what the condition of your soil is. You state agricultural department should offer that service for a nominal fee and it will end all mystery.