Swiss chard likes the heat so you should be able to leave it in place all summer. I started mine in mid-May last year and they produced well into fall. This year, I started them mid-April (this past weekend) to extend the harvest even further; just keep picking the outer leaves and let the middles grow all season. For the others, it depends on what varieties you're using and their days to maturity, as well as whether you'll be harvesting all at once or bit by bit. And, of course, the weather doesn't always cooperate -- it could get so hot in May your lettuce will bolt, or it could be so cool that you need to hold the tomatoes until June. So my suggestion is to make a general plan based on days to maturity of your various plants, while recognizing that you'll need to be flexible if crops aren't as far along as you'd hoped by a given date. (At which point, you'd need to either find a different spot for the warm season crop that is supposed to go there, or pull the cool season crop early to make room.)

Hi sharbear, What a gorgeous, sunny spot you have there! It looks like butterflies should love it. I'm a newbie too, but I can tell you what I have in my garden. I "won" my butterfly garden in a silent auction; it was put in this spring by a friend who raises hundreds of monarchs each year. It's done a great job of attracting butterflies so far, particularly monarchs. I'm in Ohio, nowhere near your zone, so this is probably all wrong for your area. But here is what he planted in case it helps: 5 common milkweed (A. syriaca) 3 tropical milkweed (A. curavassica) 7 echinacea (purpurea, i think?) 3 fennel 1 butterfly bush (Black Knight) 2 lance-leaf coreopsis 5 brown-eyed Susan 2 wood oats 1 Culver's root 1 Ohio native dianthus (not sure of the type) 2 foxglove beardstongue Deer ate all the flowers off my brown-eyed Susan, so it's not quite as colorful as it should be right now. I wish I knew how to attract sulfurs too. They flutter right through our yard and garden, but never land, just keep going. Must be somewhere else around that they like much better!

I linked to the site below but am wondering b'c you joined GW today, I suppose to post what you posted, and asked folks to sign up/ Is any money involved in buying the app? If so it seems to me that such advertisements are not in accord with the terms of use here at GW/ If I'm wrong please tell me no money is involved and what happens if someone does sign up in terms of getting the app you speak of? From the terms of use: (No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.) Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Direct link to veggie gardner

Hey Dave, thanks for our response! Being right down in the bottom of Ontario, surrounded by the lakes keeps us a bit warmer. Even farther south in the Niagara region (protected even more by the lakes and a big escaprment) it get downright balmy, pushed even to zone 7a! Interestingly, zone maps from before 1980 have us listed as a 5. Sorry I didn't realise the photo was so tiny - I have no clue how to resize it. My spacing is 8x2m (26x6 feet roughly).