Home gardening offers a number of benefits, including fresh food and a sense of accomplishment. But success in growing vegetables and flowers has as much to do with when you start a garden as what you plant.

The onset of when to start a garden in ohio, seed catalogs and the promise of warm weather. While it may be tempting to grab a shovel and begin gardening right away, it’s best to take your time and plan ahead for the season. That includes learning about when the last frost typically hits your area of Ohio and knowing what to do if you want to extend your garden season into autumn.

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Vegetables that can withstand cold temperatures and even the occasional frost, such as cabbage, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, beets, lettuce, parsley, peas, spinach, radishes, turnips, Swiss chard and kale, are among the best choices for an Ohio vegetable garden. It’s also a good idea to grow cool-season crops like these from transplants, rather than seeds, which can be started as early as March.

Ohioans have a relatively long vegetable-growing season, but success has as much to do with when you start planting as what you choose to grow. Use a zone map to determine the climate in your area, and focus on choosing plants that thrive in that climate. In the state’s western portion, for example, temperatures rarely go above the mid-80s; in the northeastern part of the state, they can reach the low 90s.