Planning Cool and Warm Weather Crops

During the off-season, which is winter, it’s an excellent opportunity to plan your garden for the next season. You can work on plans for your garden even when you’re not outside. Planning out the cool-season and warm-season crops is an effective way to utilize your garden space to produce a more significant yield. Cool-season crops are typically planted first in your garden in the calendar year from February to early April. These can be planted before the last frost date and require cold temperatures to germinate and mature. On the other hand, warm-season crops require higher temperatures and cannot withstand temperatures below freeze or frost.

Cool-season crops are usually sown directly into the bed when the soil is workable or a few weeks before the last frost date, as specified on the pack of seeds you plant. For example, spinach is a great cool-weather crop that can be incorporated into the soil as soon as the soil is workable in late winter or early spring. Common cool-weather crops include chard, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, kale, and arugula. Some cool weather crops are more tolerant of warmer temperatures and can last into the summer, while others will show signs of decline as warmer temperatures arrive.

In Elkhart, the last frost date is May 15th. After May 15th, it is generally safe to start planting warm-season crops. However, frost is still possible after the frost date, so pay attention to your local weather station for freeze warnings. Starting seeds for warm-weather crops inside can be helpful in areas with shorter growing seasons where large spring temperature fluctuations slow plant growth. At Wellfield Botanic Gardens, we typically start some warm-weather crops in our greenhouse to give them a head start before we plant them into the beds. This method establishes plants and helps us utilize more of the growing season. For instance, we planted tomatillos (a ground cherry native to Mexico) in the Children’s Garden last year. The tomatillos were started in the greenhouse in early March, allowing them a head start before we planted them in the beds. Some other warm-season crops include beans, corn, eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes.

Pictured, Purple Tomatillo Seedlings

Understanding the difference between cool and warm-season crops is crucial to planning your garden and crop rotations. Here at the Gardens, we plan cool-season and warm-season crops to plant in the Sensory Garden and the Children’s Garden. These bed designs change yearly, and we learn by trial and error and adjust our plantings accordingly. We welcome you to visit the gardens and see what we have planned for this year’s cool and warm season.

Ariana Guerrero

Horticulturist