How to Use This Calendar
This calendar is organized around your last spring frost date (LFD) and first fall frost date (FFD) rather than specific months, because those dates vary enormously by region. Look up your frost dates through your local cooperative extension service or the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone map, then count weeks before or after to find your planting windows. Everything below assumes a typical four-season climate.
8-10 Weeks Before Last Frost: Indoor Seed Starting
Start the slow-growing, warm-season crops that need a long head start indoors. Peppers, eggplant, and certain herbs like rosemary fall in this window. Use seed-starting mix under grow lights with 14 to 16 hours of light daily. Keep soil temperature at 70°F to 80°F for best germination.
6-8 Weeks Before Last Frost: More Indoor Starts + First Outdoor Planting
Start tomatoes, basil, and additional pepper varieties indoors. Outdoors, direct-sow cold-hardy crops that tolerate frost: peas, spinach, kale, lettuce, radishes, and onion sets. These crops actually prefer cool weather and will bolt (go to seed) once summer heat arrives.
2-4 Weeks Before Last Frost: Hardy Transplants Go Out
Transplant broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and kale seedlings outdoors. Plant potatoes. Continue successive sowings of lettuce and radishes every 2 weeks for a continuous harvest. Begin hardening off your tomato and pepper seedlings by gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions.
After Last Frost: The Main Planting Push
Once the risk of frost has passed, transplant tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil into the garden. Direct-sow beans, cucumbers, squash, melons, and corn. This is the busiest planting window of the year. Ensure all beds are amended with compost and mulched before planting.
Early-to-Mid Summer: Succession Planting
Sow another round of beans, cucumbers, and summer squash for a second wave of harvest. Plant fall-harvested crops that need time to mature: winter squash, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins. Continue harvesting and replanting lettuce and herbs as earlier plantings bolt in the heat.
Mid-to-Late Summer: Fall Garden Starts
Count backward from your first fall frost date. Start broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage transplants indoors 8 to 10 weeks before FFD. Direct-sow a fall crop of peas, spinach, kale, lettuce, radishes, and turnips 6 to 8 weeks before FFD. These cool-season crops will thrive as temperatures drop and often taste better after a light frost.
Fall: Harvest, Clean Up, and Protect
Harvest remaining crops before hard frost. Pull spent plants and compost healthy material (not diseased plants). Plant cover crops like winter rye or crimson clover on bare beds to protect and improve soil over winter. Apply a thick layer of leaf mulch over perennial beds. Get a soil test now so you can amend before spring.
Winter: Plan and Prepare
Review what worked and what didn't from the past season. Order seeds for next year's garden while selection is best. Maintain and sharpen tools. Review your soil test results and order amendments. Plan crop rotations so no plant family grows in the same spot two years running, which breaks pest and disease cycles.
For more on starting seeds and transplanting, see How to Start Seeds Indoors. And for soil prep between seasons, check our Soil 101 guide.