Seed Sowing Calendar for June

In this post, I'll be sharing the seeds you can start in June for Zone 5B/6A. So if you're in a different zone, here's how to adjust your dates accordingly. Compare your frost dates with my frost dates and then do the math. You can either work backwards or forwards

For example, if your last frost date is a month before mine (mine is 5/11/23), you can start everything listed below in April. If your last frost date is 2 weeks after mine, start these items mid-May, or just know they might be in your house a couple weeks longer than here. That being said, some of these items are frost-tolerant and won't be bothered by the difference in timing. But you'll need to do your homework to know your varieties.
To work backward, find out how many weeks (or days) difference there are between your FIRST FROST DATE and mine (mine is 10/8/23) and then add or subtract according. If your FFD is after mine, you can start these things that many days/weeks later. If your FFD is before mine, you'll start your seeds that many days/weeks BEFORE.

In my Seed Sowing Calendar for May post, I shared WHY and HOW I'm fine-tuning my seed-sowing calendar and practice to be more of a year-round schedule. You should definitely give that post a read to better understand why these calendars can be useful to your gardening efforts.

But to summarize, when I say "year-round", I specifically mean starting seeds as early as February (for my zone) and continuing to start seeds indoors through September or October (mainly for garlic and overwintered plants).

I've realized that for my goals and purposes, which is to GROW A LOT OF FOOD, this type of calendar is actually SIMPLER & LESS FUSSY in the grand scheme of things. It can also make things simpler even if you're NOT growing a lot of food.

How, you ask?

Well, instead of doing an intense few months of starting seeds indoors, generally from early March to late April, you can spread out your efforts over multiple months. In this way, you'll focus on starting a fewer seeds at a time and may even use less space in your house.

As these calendars roll out, you'll see there are many plants you can start for multiple months out of the year, which means you're not pigeon-holed to getting everything started at once (or within the small range of time.)

LETTUCE, for example, can be started as early as February and be sown all the way through September! Depending on the varieties you've chosen, this allows you to have homegrown lettuce throughout the year and not feel like you have start it all at the same time. You can do bits here and bits there and still have a continual supply.

ONIONS are another great example. You can multisow bulb onions indoors in February and continue to sow them through April. You can sow spring or salad onions much later than bulb onions and harvest from them throughout the season. Some of this depends on your growing season and the variety you choose. You need to be aware of the maturity dates and temperature needs of your plants and then translate that into your growing season.

One last example I want to share is CABBAGE. Early cabbage varieties can be started in February and March, late Cabbage for a fall harvest can be started in May or June and even July for some Chinese Cabbage varieties. And then you can start cabbage for overwintering from June through August!

SEE HOW THIS GIVES YOU SOME OPTIONS??

If you plan accordingly, YOU DON'T HAVE TO START EVERYTHING within just a couple of months! You could possibly have a few trays of seedlings growing in your house at a time, depending on your goals.

And most of these seedlings, with the exception of longer-growing plants like eggplants, peppers and some herbs which need quite a long time to grow indoors, will only be in your house a few weeks before they're moved out!

As I talked about in my How to Have Better Germination video, the main purpose of starting all these seeds indoors is germination! You will have MUCH MORE SUCCESS getting these plants going indoors in the heat versus outdoors in the cold, EVEN IF THEY'RE COOL SEASON PLANTS!

Most seeds prefer to germinate in warmth, which you can provide them indoors. Once they've germinated, they'll grow just fine outside in cooler temps, AND they'll fare better being transplanted as small seedlings versus larger seedlings. But again, I stress that you must know your plants and what temps they prefer to grow in!

Additional Planning Resources

Before I get to the calendar, I'm going to throw some resources at you that will help with your planning.

Your ultimate success in all of this comes down to a bit of planning (a lot of which I'm doing for you with my Seed Sowing Calendars) and goal setting (your favorite, right?)

WHAT are you growing?
WHY are you growing it?
HOW do you intend to use it?
HOW MUCH do you need to grow?
HOW MUCH TIME do you have to devote to the garden?

These are all questions you should ask BEFORE you get started with gardening, no matter how you do it. And answering these questions will help you think through WHEN you want to start your seeds and WHEN you want to plant them out!

To help you walk through these questions and get a plan together, check out my Choose Your Plants Guidebook, which you can PURCHASE HERE or get for FREE by joining my email list. This guide will help you define your garden goals for the year as determined by your budget, time and space and learn to prioritize which plants to grow in order to meet your specific goals.
Check out my Garden Design Workshops and Guidebooks that walk you through not only where to place your garden, but how and where to place your plants IN the garden. These will really help you define your space and determine which plants you want to grow and how many of those plants you'll need.
My blog post on Intensive Gardening and Multisowing are also really helpful in determining how and where to place your plants in the garden, and multisowing is like the "best kept secret" of gardening, y'all!
And lastly, my Early Spring Garden Workshop and Guidebook will help you get your garden growing as early as March, planning out which cool season plants you can be eating in the early spring.

What You Can Start in June

Sow Under Cover (i.e. inside or in covered greenhouse)

Leaf Lettuce (early varieties)
Head Lettuce
Beetroot or Beets for leaves
Calabrese Broccoli for an autumn harvest (in my parts, anyway, it's better to start broccoli once it's warmed up outside to avoid bolting)
Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Cauliflower (for both autumn & next spring's harvest)
Rutabaga (late May/early June)
Dwarf Beans
Endive (can sow through July)
Radicchio (mid-May)
Chinese Cabbage (sow through end of July)
Cabbage for winter
Chard
Kale
Cucumber
Basil

After Solstice (the longest day, usually around June 21st) sow:

Endive
Kohlrabi
Florence fennel

Sow Outside

Same as "Under Cover"
Carrots
Cucumber before mid-June