Here in my USDA Zone 7b garden (just north of Dallas, TX), my last frost
date is Mar 15 to Apr 1, and the first frost of the year is usually around Nov 10 to Nov 25.
If you'd like to find out the same information for your own location, you
might want to use one of these tools from Time-Life: Zone
Maps or Zone
Finder
I actually started my garden planning in 1995 by researching
each plant type that I wanted to grow and calculating the estimated
planting dates for my area. Here's a 1997 calendar for you to peek at while you're calculating
some of these dates.
I am a beginning gardener, working in a small city lot using raised
beds for my vegetables and bermed beds around my lawn for perennials and
ornamentals. I also have several semi-dwarf and dwarf fruit trees on the
property. Nineteen-ninety-six will be my second full year of gardening.
I hope that by publishing this journal, you will follow along with me
in my blunders and discoveries as I plan, maintain, and observe my garden.
During the year I will be recording many things here in my journal, including:
data about the seeds and plants I'm using (e.g., variety)
catalog sources
dates when I'm sowing, transplanting, and harvesting
what's blooming
pruning information
my observations/conclusions
I also anticipate that, due to time limitations and my impatience in
some cases, perhaps this journal may not be as detailed as I would like.
Hopefully this will be one of those things that I gradually develop and
fine-tune as time progresses.
Since this is largely a learning experience to begin with, I would welcome
any comments, questions, or suggestions you may have about my gardening
efforts or my Web pages. Please feel free to drop me a line by e-mail.
Mellinger's - small-sized perennials (based on my limited order), but hardy and thriving
Park Seed Co. - somewhat high-priced, but very
good quality plants
Territorial Seed Company - fast service, good
variety selections for vegetables (also carry miscellaneous other items)
Henry Field's Seed & Nursery - basic varieties of vegetables and flowers, outstanding
seed germination, but plant products are small and don't always thrive
R.H. Shumway - good selection of vegetable and seed varieties, beautiful catalog
illustrated with old-fashioned line drawings
Totally Tomatoes - slow service, excellent selection of tomato and pepper varieties, fair
customer service
Liberty Seed Company - good service, good selection of many vegetable and flower varieties
and gardening supplies
Harris Seeds - good selection of vegetable and flower seeds, good service, good shipping
rates
Stokes Seeds - good selection of vegetable and flower seeds, but seeds were broken up on
arrival and had poor germination; average customer service
Ronniger's Seed Potatoes - good selection of potato varieties, good customer service
Ison's Nursery & Vineyards - based on my limited order, small-sized berry plants which
did not survive, good prices
Gardens Alive! - average service, fair customer service
Burpee - difficulty getting catalogs first 2 years,
out-of-stock of many items, good selection of vegetable and flower varieties, fair germination rates,
rather high prices