04/10/2026
Spinach and radish seeds are already in the ground for me.
Have you put seeds in the ground yet ?
You wait for the same warm weekend to plant everything and lose half your growing season before it starts.
Seeds don't all wake up at the same temperature. Some germinate in cold wet ground that would rot a bean seed in days. Others need warmth that won't arrive for weeks. Planting them all together means half are late and half are struggling.
Four windows. Not one.
🌱 Window one — early spring, while the ground still feels cold:
Peas, spinach, radishes. These crops want cool soil. By the time warm weekends arrive, their best window has already closed and spinach is weeks from bolting. Get them in early.
Window two — a few weeks later, once the ground warms past fifty degrees:
Carrots, beets, lettuce. They need workable soil but not warm soil. The window is narrow — too early and carrots rot, too late and summer heat makes germination patchy.
Window three — after last frost, soil above sixty degrees:
Beans, corn, squash. These seeds absorb cold moisture without metabolizing it. Patience here pays back in germination rate.
🌿 Window four — midsummer. The one almost nobody uses:
Once the longest days pass, the same cold-hardy crops from spring thrive again. Kale sown in July produces sweeter leaves than anything from April — frost converts the starches to sugars, which is why fall kale tastes different. Turnips and arugula fill beds vacated by spent spring crops and give you a second harvest from the same ground.
Count backward sixty to seventy days from your first fall frost. That's the resow date.
Four windows. Two harvests. The season is longer than most people use it. 🪴
