Getting a little more formal about planting

It's getting pretty close to the time that I start plants indoors for later transfer to the garden or greenhouse; and this year I'm going to make a planting calendar, so that I know the schedule for my plantings. 

For planning your garden, I've found this table from Territorial seeds to be handy. 

The basic rules that I have on the garden is that I prefer to plant things that taste much better fresh (carrots spring to mind) are expensive to buy (lettuce, sugar peas, peppers) or things that are possible items for resale (pumpkins, watermelons, basil).   I'd also like to plant things that have a dual use (ground cover/livestock feed) or that might be good crops in the future. 

This year I am going to plant 4 acres of corn to supplement my animal feed later in the year, as I expect corn prices to be outrageous for the rest of this year.  Thank you, ethanol lobby. 

The greenhouse allows me to stretch my season a little, both at the start and end.  So I can actually start planing salad greens and cold-hardy plants like peas around the first of march.  The majority of the warm-weather crops I'll start the 2nd week of march, and plan on transplanting in April.  For the squash and other items that take up a bit of space, I'll wait, sometimes until late may or early June.  Last year it was a cold and wet spring, followed by a cold and wet summer, and the only real production I got was from the greenhouse for most of the year.  The fall was good, and warm, and that's when the squash did very well. 

So what I do is look down my list to see if there are items I'd like to be done by a particular time - like pumpkins by Oct 1st - and then work backwards from that date to see what the planting date I'll need to meet to reach that goal. 

For things like salad greens I look at my weekly consumption, and plant 4x that amount each week.  Inevitably there's some loss of plants and if you end up with extra produce, you can always find an animal that's overjoyed to eat it -- or, if you have a true abundance, a market for it.  Last year I produced about 500lbs of organic basil and I sold the majority of it. 

My list of plantings for this year  (am i missing something good?  Tell me!)

Salad/greens
Spinach
Catnip
Lettuce (Romain, iceberg)
cabbage
arugula
Sugar peas
Tomatillos
Tomatoes (various varieties)

Beans
String beans

Squash
Zucchini
Summer squash
Acorn squash
Pumpkin

Melons
Watermelon (2 varieties)
Cantelope

Herbs
Basil
Mint
Cilantro

Peppers
Thai
Habenero
Sweet bell
Anaheim

Animal fodder
Turnips
Parsnips

Experiments
Honeydew
winter squash (haven't selected variety)
sweet corn
field corn