Spring
Start on time, not on a weekend
Peppers eight weeks before last frost. Tomatoes six. Greens as soon as the soil can be worked. Beans wait for warmth. The calendar is the tool, not the catalog.
Match your ZIP · Indoor start dates
The spring list
Tomatoes
Start indoors. Match days-to-maturity to the weeks you actually have after last frost.
55–85 days · zones 3a–11a
Peppers
Need more heat and a longer indoor start than tomatoes. Short-season varieties matter north of zone 7.
60–85 days · zones 4a–11a
Lettuce
The crop that makes a first garden feel like a garden. Sow in spring and again in late summer.
30–55 days · zones 3a–10b
Basil
Warm-season herb. Wait until nights stay above 50°F, or keep it on a bright sill.
45–70 days · zones 4a–11a
Beans
Do not start indoors. Sow in warm soil. Bush types for first gardens; poles if you have a fence.
50–65 days · zones 3a–11a
Spinach
Bolts in heat. Sow the moment the soil can be worked, and again in late summer for fall.
37–50 days · zones 3a–10a
Radish
Twenty-five days. The crop you sow when you need a win, or when the season is almost over.
22–30 days · zones 3a–11a
Peas
Sow as soon as the ground thaws. Heat ends the crop. A fall sowing only works with enough cool weeks.
55–70 days · zones 3a–9a
Onions
Start early or buy plants. Long-day types north of ~36°N, short-day in the South. Bunching onions if you want a win.
90–120 days · zones 3a–10a
Potatoes
Seed potatoes, not grocery tubers. Plant when the soil can be worked. Hill them. Grocery potatoes are often treated.
70–100 days · zones 3a–9a
Kits that change March
Spring
First garden
Six packets that actually finish for a beginner: greens, a cherry tomato, beans, basil, and a flower so the bed looks like you meant it.
Open kitLate winter
Seed starting bench
The gear that actually changes germination. Buy trays once. Skip the grocery-store peat pellets.
Open kitSpring
Short-season Midwest
Zone 5–6 packets that finish. Early Girl, not Brandywine. A heat mat in March beats a fifth tomato.
Open kit
Read first
A first garden that actually finishes
Six crops, one 4×8 bed, and the mistakes that waste a spring.
How to start seeds indoors without a greenhouse
Heat, light, and a tray you will not throw away. The rest is optional.
What not to grow your first year
Corn, melon, cauliflower, and a 90-day heirloom are how a 4×8 bed becomes a lecture.
How to count indoor start dates
Weeks before last frost, not a national calendar. Peppers first. Beans never.
The sow list
A note when it is time to sow
Seasonal, not daily. We will send what to start in your zone, and skip the rest of the year.
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