1. Your frost dates
Find the two frost dates for your town from your local cooperative extension service or a regional frost-date table. In the southern hemisphere enter the spring date and the next autumn's date; the page treats an earlier fall date as next year's. Leave the hot-weather date blank to assume about ten weeks after the last frost.
2. Your crops
Enter both frost dates and choose crops, then click Build.
Your plan
Coming up in the next 30 days
Month by month
S start indoorsP plant or transplantH harvest
Every date, in order
| Date | What to do |
|---|
Notes for your crops
How it is built
Timing rules: each crop carries a planting date measured in weeks before or after your average last spring frost (hardy crops go in four to six weeks early, tender ones a week or two after), the weeks of indoor head start for transplants, and the days from planting to first harvest. These are common extension-service rules of thumb.
Succession and the end of the season: sowings repeat at the crop's interval until there is no longer time to mature before the first fall frost (hardy crops get four weeks of grace, half-hardy two, tender none). Cool-season crops also stop before summer heat and get a second window in late summer for a fall harvest, with two extra weeks allowed because autumn days are shorter.
Dates, not a forecast: the plan is for a typical year. A cold spring or an early frost moves everything, so treat each date as a target and watch the weather.
Checked: the test suite builds plans for dozens of frost-date combinations and every crop and confirms that no tender crop is planned before the last frost, no planting is too late to mature, cool crops finish before the heat, and dates always run in order.
Common questions
How do I find my last frost date?
Look up the average last spring frost and average first fall frost for your town from your local cooperative extension service, a regional frost-date table or an almanac, and enter them here. They are averages, so some years the last frost comes a week or two later. Choose the cautious setting if a late frost has caught you before.
When should I start tomato seeds indoors?
About six weeks before you plan to move the seedlings outside, and the move itself happens about a week after your average last frost. With a last frost on May 1 that means starting seeds around March 27 and transplanting around May 8. Peppers and eggplant like a longer head start of about eight weeks.
What does succession planting mean?
Sowing a small amount every couple of weeks instead of everything at once, so lettuce, radishes, beans and carrots arrive a few at a time instead of all in one week. The calendar lists each sowing date for the crops where this pays off and stops when there is no longer time to mature before frost.
Why does lettuce stop in summer and start again in late summer?
Lettuce, spinach, radish, broccoli and other cool-season crops bolt or turn bitter in hot weather. The calendar stops spring sowing early enough to finish before the heat, then offers a second planting window in late summer for a fall harvest. You can set the date hot weather usually starts where you live.
Does this work in the southern hemisphere?
Yes. Enter your last frost in spring (for example September 30) and your first frost in autumn (for example June 1 of the next calendar year). When the fall frost date falls before the spring one, the page treats it as the following year, so the plan runs across New Year.
Can I put the dates in my phone calendar?
Yes. Download the calendar file and open it in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook. Every sowing, transplanting and first-harvest date becomes an all-day event. You can also download a CSV for a spreadsheet or copy the plan as plain text.
Is my garden plan uploaded anywhere?
No. The calculation runs in your browser, nothing is sent to a server and there are no accounts. Use Save plan if you want a file to load again next season.