Your planting calendar, from your frost dates

Each crop's dates count from your average last spring frost and first fall frost: the dates NOAA's 1991–2020 climate normals give for a 32 °F night in half of years, at the weather station nearest your ZIP code that publishes them. Each crop record sets how many weeks before or after those dates to start seeds indoors, plant out, sow and plant for fall, from university extension and USDA guides. Harvest starts the shortest days to harvest after the earliest planting and runs for the crop's usual picking weeks, or until the slowest variety from the latest planting is ready if that is later; a frost-tender crop's harvest never runs past the first fall frost, and one that keeps producing until frost, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra and basil, is picked until then. A market grower's succession sowings are spaced by the crop's interval: a warm-season crop for as long as the slowest variety still ripens before the first fall frost, a cool-season crop through its spring and fall windows.

Example only; use your own ZIP code. Columbus, Ohio (43215) has an average last spring frost of April 18 and first fall frost of October 27. Tomatoes start indoors 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost, March 7 to 21, and go out 2 to 3 weeks after it, May 2 to 9.

Your crop list is saved in this browser only; we use your ZIP code just to look up the dates.

Frost dates: NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (public domain). Hardiness zones: USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map (USDA ARS and Oregon State University PRISM), CC BY 4.0. Hero photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.