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9
Plant a Flower Day: What to Plant in Augusta
Spring planting in Augusta is tricky. Luckily, decades of experienced gardeners and farmers have determined the best guess for frost dates based on historical weather data. These dates offer a good guide for when to start seeds for particular crops, indoors or outdoors, or when to plant seedlings or transplants. One of the best methods for determining what vegetables to plant and when to plant them is The Old Farmer's Almanac.
Now online, the Farmer's Almanac even makes it possible for you to look up the various towns in Maine for frost and planting dates. As you settle in the dream home you chose from Augusta homes for sale, you'll find this planting guide invaluable for raising vegetables and flowers in our challenging weather.
With National Plant a Flower Day coming up on March 12, now is the perfect time to start thinking about what you'll plant in your garden this year.
Let's break it down a bit as to which vegetables and which flowers you might plant this spring as you launch your Augusta garden.
Vegetables
Cole crops, which do well in cooler weather, are a great choice for your early spring garden. Plant broccoli and cabbage in the early spring; cauliflower in mid-spring; eggplant, pepper, and tomato in early summer; and beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, and radishes in mid-summer to late fall.
If you're sowing seeds directly in the soil, plant these crops in early spring: endive, lettuce, onion sets, peas, radishes, spinach, and turnips; in mid-spring, sow beet, carrot, parsnip, and Swiss chard seeds and onion sets directly; in early summer sow seeds for cucumbers, lima beans, melons, okra, pumpkin, squash, and winter potatoes; in mid-summer to fall, sow seeds for beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, and radishes.
Consult the Farmer's Almanac planting guide about when to plant seeds indoors for successful transfer to the garden. Note: Seedlings are ready to transplant when they're too large for their seed trays or starter pots. If it's still too chilly to plant outdoors, transplant the seedlings to larger pots indoors.
Flowers
For flowers, choose species that flourish in Maine. So-called "nativars," which are cultivars that have been developed from native plants, are your best bet. Look for perennials such as asters, buttonbushes, goldenrods, and bugbanes. Throw in some swamp milkweed, and the monarch butterflies will love you for it.
Some non-natives that do well in Maine are astilbes, black-eyed Susans, and coneflowers. Also, plant daylilies, delphiniums, hollyhocks, sedums, and salvias.
Other garden flowers to look at are these: coreopsis; purple coneflower; lupines; iris, a bulb; bloodroot; grape hyacinth, an annual vine; tulips, another bulb; and pansies, an annual.
There's no need to limit your flowering species to perennials; you can also plant flowering shrubs, such as hydrangeas and spireas, and trees such as kousa dogwoods lilacs, and star magnolias.
These days there's no reason to avoid planting roses, as many cultivars have been developed that do well in our cold climate. Among the choice roses for our area are Alba semi-plena or White Rose of York; Jenny Duval, an old garden rose; Charles de Mills, a fragrant and hardy old garden rose; Alba maxima, an old garden rose also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie; and Rose Mundi, a fragrant pink.
These flowers have varying bloom times, according to the season, so when you plant them, try to place them so there will be a succession of color as the blooming season progresses.
Our real estate agents can give you valuable tips for beautifying your property. Contact us today.