Planting your garden takes planning. Lots of planning. You have to know when the latest frost date is for your area to know when it’s good to start planting out in the garden itself. Many places may need to start their growing indoors until after the last frost to have a productive growing season.

Here in Arizona we have a longer growing season in the southern parts, but closer to what other areas have in the northern parts. Our last frost is generally around March. So this means that we can start to sow seeds in the ground in March. Many other places seem to have to wait until April or even May before they can start putting plants in the ground. Here in Arizona, I usually start some seeds indoors but most I start outside in the garden.

Because we have such a long growing season compared to most, we do most of our planting in the ground wether it be seed or plant. They generally go straight into the ground. However, we are also hotter than most other places so we have to remember that when something says it can be in full sun, for us that means it needs partial shade. So we do have a bit of a learning curve when it comes to what the plants like and need as far as sun or shade go. The afternoon sun is so hot here that even plants that say full sun don’t do well if they don’t have shade (or a lot of water).