An essential thing to do in gardening is keeping and maintaining regular notes about your garden. This helps you in knowing what exactly you have achieved and what is pending. Here is a list of maintenance activities that you can do to maintain your garden in USDA zone 5.
February (1st week to 3rd week):
Put a cold frame together and position it in such a place where warm climate plants will be grown. This will give more time for all the seedlings to mature in the cold frame before they are removed.
Last week of February and first week of March:
Start planting lettuce seeds indoors. The exact date of plantation may vary depending on the weather present at that time. Whenever, the weather is ideal, empty all your compost bins and put close to 1 to 2 inches of compost on all your plant beds.
Second to last week of March:
Start planting seeds of cabbage, celery, brussel sprout and broccoli. These plantations must be done indoors. Also, start planting tomatoes and peppers indoors.
First two weeks of April:
If you have ordered onion seedlings, this will be the time they will be arriving by mail. Plant them out in the garden. Plant all the transparent lettuce seedlings out in the garden only if they are large enough. They are generally large enough when they start sprouting their second set of true leaves. Continue doing so for the first 2 weeks of April. You can also plant some seedlings of pea out in your garden.
Last 2 weeks of April:
You must start transplanting the broccoli, brussel sprout and cabbage seedlings into the garden. You can also start planting cucumber seedlings in the cold frame. Planting certified seeds of potato in bigger pots may also be a good idea. Transplant all the pepper seedlings into larger pots.
First two weeks of May:
Begin harvesting some of the smaller leaves from the initially planted lettuce. Start harvesting the onions if they are large enough. Transplant your celery seedlings into your garden. Plant some corn seedlings in your garden. Transplant all your tomato, cucumber and pepper seedlings into your garden. You can even plant some pole lima seeds in your garden. This should be followed by a break of about a month or so.
Last two weeks of June:
Pull out all the garden peas. Plant some bush green peas in their place.
First three weeks of July:
Start planting the fall seeds of plants like cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli. Pull out the cucumber vines that are supposed to be finished with producing. This would assist the growth of the peppers that are supposed to be growing nearby. Pull out the onion seedlings, chop the tops off and let the tops cure in the sunlight for about 10 days.
First three weeks of August:
Plant some bush green peas in the garden in the place where the spring onions grew. Make sure that the seedlings of cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower are well watered after transplanting them into your garden. Plant carrot seedlings in the garden. Once the harvesting of corn is done, plant bush green peas in the place where corn was planted before harvesting. Take a break of a couple of weeks after this.
First two weeks of September:
Transplant the lettuce seedlings into the garden and make sure to keep them well watered.
October:
Have a row cover in hand to keep the frost off the beans plantations. Cover all the carrot and lettuce plantations with hoops to keep their growth going during fall. If heavy frosts are forecasted, keep the cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower plantations covered so that their active growth isn’t hampered.
November:
Cover the unused part of your garden with tattered tree leaves. Harvest the carrots as soon as they mature and cover their beds with a layer of tattered leaves.
December:
Complete the harvesting of carrots and lettuce early in the month because the weather won’t permit you to do so later.
