Lesson 1
Reading the seasons where you live
Generic gardening calendars fail because the year is not the same everywhere. A Sussex grower sows tomatoes in April; a Madrid grower sows them in February; a Sydney grower sows them in August. The trick is to read your own year by the three signals that actually matter: last frost date, average daylight, and soil temperature.
You don't need a weather station — you need to notice. When does forsythia flower locally? When do the first daffodils open? Local frost guidance from a national met service plus a free soil thermometer (£8) will do more for your timing than any month-by-month book.
The four signals that drive your year
- Last frost date — gates everything tender (tomato, basil, dahlia, courgette).
- Average daylight — leafy crops bolt above 14 hours; flowers like cosmos delay below 12.
- Soil temperature — most seeds need 10°C+ to germinate; tomatoes and zinnias want 18°C+.
- First frost date in autumn — backwards-counts your last harvest window.
Note the date of your last frost each year on the inside cover of your seed box. Within three years you'll have a personal forecast tighter than any almanac.