Confused about when to plant or transplant outdoors? These planting guides, zone map can help

Spring is that iffy time of year … warm days and garden center plant displays make you want to get outside and start gardening right away. But is it too early to sow seeds or plant/transplant seedlings or starter plants outdoors? Too late? Well, in the interest of low-maintenance, easy-care gardening – even now in the planning and planting stage – here's a zone map and planting guides from Burpee that can help:  

(Just in case you can't see the color key on this map too well, grey means a last frost/outdoor planting date of June 15; purple June 5; green May 25; yellow May 15; red April 26; beige April 3; orange March 3 and peach February 25.)

Unless you live in the colder areas with a last frost/outdoor planting date of June 5 or later, it might be too late to start seeds for the flowers and vegetables listed above (broccoli, eggplant, pepper, swiss chard, tomato, coleus, geranium, impatiens, salvia and snapdragon). That's because the general rule of thumb is that seeds sown indoors should be started about eight weeks before the last frost date in their area. Otherwise, they won't be ready in time. It's probably a safer bet, if you want to grow these veggies, to buy starter plants at the garden center. On the other hand, I hate rules – and in the garden, they can – and will – be broken.

If it's not already past your area's last frost date (see map), you can go ahead and direct-sow these seeds into the ground outside. If you live in a warm area, however, you can still grow these veggies in a cold frame protected by a shading material like burlap.

After your area's last frost date (see map above), transplant into the ground outside the following seedlings (grown indoors or bought from the garden center): bean, cantaloupe, cucumber, eggplant, pepper, squash, tomato, watermelon. Seedlings grown by you indoors, by the way, first need a week or two to "harden off." Not sure how to do this? Check out this great post on how to harden off plants by About.com's Gardening Guide, Marie Iannotti.

Hope this helps! For planting and weather information that's more specific to your area, it's also a good idea to contact your local agriculture or horticulture extension office. See you here next time on Your Easy Garden by Tesselaar!