What time of year should you be planting particular plants?

Posted by Belle on April 18th, 2019

What time of year should you be planting particular plants?

Timing is essential when gardening, particularly if you are planning on planting new additions to your garden as this can determine whether they will survive the first season or not. Here you can get a rough idea of what type of plants are suitable for each season in order to help ensure they grow properly.

Being the coldest time of the year, winter is the most difficult time to start planting new plants, particularly when there is snow around. Your last chance to plant any bulbs for spring is in December time before the temperature drops below freezing. Once any signs of snow and frost have passed, you can start to plant flowers such as roses towards the end of winter. Deciduous shrubs are also good to plant during this time as well. Examples of these include Japanese Barberry, Azalea, Cistena Plum and Snowberry. Flower cutting such as fuchsias and chrysanthemums can also be potted at this time of year if you are growing them in a greenhouse.

At the beginning of spring, during March, you can continue to plant deciduous shrubs and trees as well as introducing fruit trees into the ground. You can also start to sew some summer bedding seeds, these might need to be done in pots to begin with depending on the plant, or some may be able to go straight to the ground. April is a good time to plant evergreens such as conifers. For those who like to grow vegetables, this is the time to sow seeds for the likes of lettuces, carrots and beans. Towards the end of spring you can now plant flowers such as dahlias. You can also then sow seeds for the likes of foxgloves and wallflowers.

As summer begins you can finish the rest of sowing seeds in remaining beds. If you have hanging baskets in your gardens you can add colourful flowers such as pansies and black-eyed susans. In vegetable patches, you can now add broccoli and cabbages which should be done before August begins. During the hottest month ensure all plants are well watered to ensure they survive the heat. You can then begin planting flowering bulbs for spring as well as more vegetables like spinach, more carrots and lettuces in addition to leeks and turnips. Towards the end of summer when autumn approaches continue to plant flowering bulbs for winter and spring.

During autumn the amount of rain continues to increase, providing the prime time to plant new trees and shrubs as they are most likely to establish properly during this period. The amount of rain also means that the trees require less maintenance as you shouldn’t need to water them and the soil should be in good condition. Trees roots should then become strong enough to survive the cold winter months to come.