Lancaster, CA - Spring Planting Study for 2013

It's time to start planning the Spring 2013 vegetable garden!

I have set up a "grow rack", a simple steel rack shelving system with 4' fluorescent light fixtures for starting seeds indoors.  Contrary to my original assuption, I'm going to need to start seeds indoors...  it's just too cold outside.

Now that we've established that basic fact, the first step is to plan when to plant seeds indoors, and when to plant seeds outdoors.  The planting date for seeds is calculated based on the last Spring frost date for your climate zone.  I'm going to first determine the last frost date for 93536. 

This handy map tells me that the last frost date for Lancaster, CA is April 11 - April 20.  Since I'm looking for an average frost date, and I've killed enough seedlings this year to want to be a bit conservative, I'm going with April 20 as the last spring frost date for 2013.

Now I simply count back weeks to determine the correct planting date for each vegetable seed item.

February 23 - 8 weeks before last frost
March 2 - 7 weeks before last frost
March 9 - 6 weeks before last frost
March 16 - 5 weeks before last frost
March 23 - 4 weeks before last frost
March 30 - 3 weeks before last frost
April 6 - 2 weeks before last frost
April 13 - 1 week before last frost
April 20 - Last Frost

See why I need to start planning now?  : )

Here are the setback amount of weeks I've gathered from various sources (of vegetables I want to plant and grow this spring):

When to plant outdoors:
Beets, Radishes:  2 wks
Onion:  2 wks
Carrots - 2 wks
Peas - 3 to 4 wks
Kale, Chard, Collards - 4 wks
Squash, melon, cucumbers:  when soil temperature is 60 degrees

When to plant indoors:
Tomato:  4-6 weeks
Lettuce:  4-6 weeks
Peppers:  6-8 weeks
Basil:  6 weeks
Cole crops (cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, collards, broccoli):  6-8 wks

I'm also going to refer to the Tucson spring planting calendar for another point of reference, as most of Tucson is zone 8b also (South Tucson is zone 9a and warmer).