Phenological markers, with them, you can't go wrong!

Here in Eastern Quebec, due to our northernness, it is often difficult to find one's way in American or French reference books with regard to sowing periods, for example. To guide you, we have built a sowing calendar that can be downloaded here , but you can also rely on the phenological benchmarks.

The landmarks of 'que quoi am I saying'? Phenology is actually the study of the occurrence of periodic events in the living world determined by seasonal variations in climate . Basically, they are apparent natural changes in our environment observable from season to season.

This is how, by simply paying attention to these natural signs that change according to the brightness and the temperature, we can know when to sow our seeds or when to plant our tomato plants in the garden, for example.

For the garden, there are three that are interesting to remember:

1- When the dandelions are in bloom in your lawn and it is long enough to want to cut it (but we wait for the end of the flowering of the dandelions because dandelions are beautiful). The ground reached a little over 6C. Now is the right time to:

• Plant small plants of leeks, onions, shallots in the garden. These vegetables are cold hardy and can tolerate cold nights and light frost.
• Sow seeds of spinach, peas, lettuce, radish in the garden

2- When the apple trees are in bloom, the ground has reached around 12C, this is a sign that you can:

• Sow the seeds of Carrot, Beets, Swiss Chard, Cabbage
• Put the potato tubers in the ground

3- When the lilacs are in bloom, the ground has reached around 18C. It's time to plant and sow:

• Sow the seeds of beans, fava beans directly in the garden
• Transplant our plants of peppers, eggplant, cucumber, zucchini, squash, pumpkin, basil, parsley, flowers... While checking that it does not announce frosts at night for the next few days.

This is how, by observing nature, you will plant your seedlings and seeds at the best time.