Spring planting in Canberra: make a plan before you buy.

Choose a small, useful crop list

Start with what you want to eat, pick or look at. Give each choice a place on a simple sketch. Include room to reach the plants and space for their eventual size, using the label or growing guide rather than the size of the pot as your guide.

For a first vegetable bed, our suggestion is to choose a few crops you use regularly rather than one of everything. Write down the variety as well as the vegetable name. Different varieties may have different seasonal requirements.

For permanent planting, use the ACT’s trees and plants guidance, which points to the Canberra Plant Selector for sun, shade and frost tolerances. Match the plant to the place you have.

Check sowing and transplanting separately

In a planting guide, sowing means starting with seed; transplanting means putting an established seedling into its next growing position. A month suitable for one is not automatically suitable for the other.

The COGS spring planting guide warns that frost can continue through spring and distinguishes seed sowing from transplanting. Use the local guide alongside the variety instructions, and check the headings and key before reading a table.

For frost-sensitive summer crops such as tomatoes, capsicums and eggplants, decide separately when to raise seed under protection and when conditions suit planting outside. Do not treat the date you buy a seedling as its planting-out date. Our frost guide explains the local conditions to watch.

A few crops to investigate this spring

These selected entries follow the COGS planting calendar. They are a starting shortlist, not a guarantee for every variety or position.

For frost-sensitive crops, the COGS spring guidance advises protected seed raising before November and planting out after the soil has warmed and frost danger has passed. Check the individual crop guides for the next steps.

Prepare the bed and the watering plan

Identify existing plants before clearing the space. Measure the area and write down how you will access it, water it and manage weeds. If you are reusing a vegetable bed, record what grew there previously so you can discuss crop rotation with a local grower.

Check the planting depth and spacing for each choice. Put those details on the plan before you start digging. For a mixed bed, think through what happens when the smallest plant grows beyond its nursery-pot size.

Clear the route to the bed as well as the bed itself. If the preparation is more work than the planting, the garden-reset guide gives you a manageable sequence.

Give seedlings a clear identity

Label each sowing with the crop, variety and date. Keep the packet so you can refer back to the instructions. When seedlings move into another container or the ground, move the label too.

Canberra Seed Savers Cooperative’s seed-growing guide distinguishes seed-raising mix from potting mix used for growing seedlings on. It is a useful local explanation if you are starting from seed for the first time.

Our practical record is deliberately short: what you sowed, when it emerged and when it moved outside. You will have something useful to compare next year without maintaining a complicated garden diary.

Take this list to the nursery

Can I plant everything on the first warm weekend? No. Check the particular plant and its stage of growth. Prepare the space now if conditions are not suitable for planting.

Is the Melbourne Cup a guaranteed safe date? No. It is a local rule of thumb for frost-sensitive planting, not a weather guarantee. Use the forecast and the conditions in your own garden.

Once the plants are chosen, read the mulching guide before covering a newly planted bed.