Here in northern Alberta we only have 88 frost free days. So I have to start my garden inside. I start planting my plants in the middle of March. This ensures that we will have veggies at the end of the season. Now that the temperature has warmed up I put the garden in our atrium (which is like a greenhouse) in the day and bring it back into the house at night. Our atrium is not fully finished so the cool night air can still get into the plants.
Starting tonight I am going to leave a few plants in the atrium and see if they can handle the cool night. We are still getting down to +4 at night so I still have to be careful.
I usually start the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, kale and cabbage first. After I get those done then I start the rest of the garden. The rest of the garden entails corn, spinach, squash, pumpkin, zucchini lettuce and cantaloupe. This year I am attempting broccoli. I have also planted thyme and basil.
All of these plants will get planted in The first week of June. I wait that long because we usually have a frost in the last week of May. In the past many gardeners planted their garden the third weekend of May. However coming this far north I have noticed it’s better to wait till June for the more tender type of plants. Our root vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots and beets as well as peas can go into the ground anytime after the second week of May.
