Magazine issue month vs when to plant

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ilknur
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I’ve been a subscriber for a few years now but still an experimental gardener, where the term gardener is used loosely. Just a bit of a background so my question makes a bit of sense. I live in Scotland about 800ft above sea level and get a lot of harsh winds across my large garden. I do have a rather large unheated greenhouse.
When I get my magazines through the letter box, I am well excited as you can well imagine but the issues usually come quite early. For instance May issue arrived in March. So the question is whenever they say “sow now/plant now/harvest now”, do they mean in May or in March? Obviously harvesting is a no-brainer. But knowing when to sow and plant is always a hard one for me, first due to colder climate up here and second, the growing season is very short here. There are some advice out there for delaying sowing/planting a month later than suggested in England but then it doesn’t leave much time for crops to grow and mature. I am currently running out of space with seedlings at every surface in the house and in the greenhouse but they’ve got to be planted soon but overnight temperatures running around -4 to -6, there’s no way anything other than garlic would be frost free. So what’s your suggestion- do I apply March issue to-dos in April or is May issue coming out in March meant to be for March? Mind boggles easily...
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peter
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Advice is for the month printed on the magazine and folk in Cornwall have the opposite issue to you with temperatures. Any advice would be general as your microclimate would apply. Local hills, frost pockets, aspect, slope exposure to wind - as you mention. Best suggestion I can give is start recording and keep a record of temperatures in the greenhouse and out in the garden, then stagger your sowing and planting a bit.
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Monika
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I have often wondered why KG comes out about six weeks before the actual date on the cover. Many other magazines do the same, but usually it's not as critical as in a gardening mag.
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I can see the reason for it so we can prep for the next month but would be good to see them maybe give a little space for what you can plant in the actual month, like a reminder. Also if they maybe threw in a rough guide about further North wait a couple of weeks, further South give it a go - local conditions permitting! Like a health warning.
Westi
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