Blackbird Hollow
Blackbird Hollow Almanac

The Sowing Board

Not A Frost Calculator — What The Week Is Asking For
The First Week Of October · First Frost Around Oct 28

Some of the “Sow It With” links on this board are affiliate links. If you buy seed or a tool through one, the Hollow may earn a small commission, at no cost to you — it never changes what the board tells you to plant, or leave in the packet. Read our full disclosure →

In the Ground This Week

Seed Goes Straight Down
Spinach
Spinacia oleracea — The One That Winters
Sow It With — Bloomsdale Spinach Seed
Sowing Window45 Days
Early SeptMid Oct
Sow Now
Prime week. Sow it thick — what you don’t cut by Christmas winters over for March.
Radishes & Turnips
Quick Roots For The Cold
Sow It With — Radish & Turnip Seed
Sowing Window25 To 50 Days
Late AugLate Oct
Sow Now
Both, this week. Radishes in a month, turnips by Thanksgiving — the greens are a second crop.
Cilantro
Coriandrum sativum — Finally Its Season
Sow It With — Slow-Bolt Cilantro Seed
Sowing WindowQuick
Mid SeptLate Oct
Sow Now
It was never a summer herb. Sown now, it stands through the frosts and doesn’t bolt.
Clover & Winter Rye
For The Beds You’re Done With
Sow It With — Crimson Clover & Winter Rye
Sowing WindowTurn Under In Spring
SeptemberThanksgiving
Sow Now
Last good week for the clover; the rye forgives you until Thanksgiving. Bare ground is the only wrong answer.

Tuck In for Winter

Starts, Frames & Row Cover
Kale & Collards
Brassica oleracea — From Starts Now
Sow It With — Lacinato Kale Seed
Set Out StartsPick Through Winter
Early SeptMid Oct
Sow Now
From starts now, not seed. Set them deep and let the frost do the seasoning.
Fall Lettuce
Lactuca — Under Glass Or Cloth
Sow It With — Heirloom Lettuce Mix
Sow Under CoverCut At Christmas
NowEarly Nov
Sow Now
Under a cold frame or a row cover from here on. It grows slow and sweet, and you’ll cut it at Christmas.

Hold the Seed

The Ground Isn’t Asking Yet
Garlic
Allium sativum — The Patient Crop
Sow It With — Hardneck Seed Garlic
Plant WindowOpens Late Oct
 Thanksgiving
Wait
Three weeks yet. It goes in after the first hard frost — break the heads the day you plant, not before.
Daffodils & Tulips
Spring, Paid In Advance
Sow It With — Daffodil & Tulip Bulbs
Plant WindowOpens Early Nov
 December
Wait
Not until the soil cools — early November. Buy now, while the good ones are still on the shelf.
On The Potting Bench This Month — A Hori Hori For The Garlic And The Bulbs and A Bolt Of Frost Cloth That Earns Its Keep By November.
From the Almanac · The Paid Companion

The whole year, written down.

The board tells you what this week is asking for. The Hollow Planting Calendar tells you the rest of it — every crop from the last frost to the first, month by month, start to harvest, in the same plain hand. A printed almanac to keep by the potting bench, tuned to your ground.

The Hollow Planting Calendar — coming to the store One PDF per USDA zone · Zones 3 through 10 · still at the print shop
Pin This Month’s Board A Fresh Board The First Of Every Month

The board doesn’t tell you the weather and it won’t do your thinking. It tells you what a working garden this size, on ground like yours, would be putting down this week — and what it would have the sense to leave in the packet.

Take the Board With You

Put the Sowing Board on your site

A living copy of the board, tuned to your reader’s zone — paste it anywhere and it keeps its own counsel.

<iframe src="https://blackbirdhollow.farm/widget/" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:320px;border:0" loading="lazy" title="Blackbird Hollow Sowing Board"></iframe>
<a href="https://blackbirdhollow.farm/sowing/" style="font-size:11px">From the Sowing Board at Blackbird Hollow</a>
Adjust The Zone Up Top And The Board Moves With You. · Read What October Brings To The Hollow →