What to Plant Now by ZIP Code

“What should I plant now?” is the question gardeners ask most often, and the honest answer depends on where you live and what the date is. This tool answers it for your own ZIP code. Enter your ZIP code and a date, and it shows which crops are in their best planting window today, which seeds to start indoors, which warm-season crops still have time, and what is coming up in the next 30 days. It works from real NOAA frost records, and it is the same timing used by our frost dates tool and our printable planting calendar, so all three agree.

Most planting advice is written for an average gardener in an average place, which is nobody. A gardener in upstate New York and one in Georgia can be a full two months apart on the same day of the year. This page counts forward and backward from the frost dates of your own nearest weather station, so the answer fits your garden.

How to use the planting guide

1. Enter your ZIP code. The tool finds the nearest weather station and its frost records.
2. Pick a date. It starts on today’s date. Change it to plan ahead, for example to see what to start indoors next month.
3. Choose average or cautious dates. Average uses the middle frost dates and is the usual choice. Cautious uses safer dates that frost is unlikely to beat, and is better for tender crops or a low-risk start.
4. Press the button and read the lists below the form.

How to read the results

The results are sorted into four lists, so you can see at a glance what to do first:

• Plant outdoors now. Crops whose best window includes your date. Each row says whether to sow seed, transplant seedlings, plant seed potatoes or plant slips, and gives the dates of the window. A fall crop is marked as such.
• Start seeds indoors now. Crops that need a head start indoors, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and onions, whose indoor window includes your date.
• Still time, if you plant soon. Crops past their best window but still worth planting. For warm-season crops, this means there are enough days left before the first fall frost to reach harvest. For cool-season crops, it means the window ended only a few weeks ago.
• Coming up in the next 30 days. Crops whose best window opens soon, with the dates, so you can get seed and beds ready.

A summary line above the lists shows the frost dates the tool used and how many days your chosen date is from the last spring freeze or the first fall freeze.

Where the dates come from

The frost dates come from NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 U.S. Climate Normals, the government’s standard record of typical weather. The tool matches your ZIP code to the center of its area and then to the closest weather station, and tells you which station it used and how far away it is. Hills, valleys, lakes and city heat all change frost timing, so a station far from you can be a little off. Compare the dates with neighbors who garden nearby.

The planting windows then count weeks forward and back from those frost dates. This is how Cooperative Extension services and seed companies work out planting times too. The rules are listed below, so you can see exactly what the tool is doing.

The spring timing rules

Each crop has a window measured in weeks from the last spring freeze. A negative number means before the freeze, and a positive number means after it.

The pattern follows how tough each crop is. Hardy crops such as peas, spinach and kale shrug off frost, so they go in before the last freeze. Tender crops such as tomatoes, beans and squash are killed by frost and sulk in cold soil, so they wait until after it. Very tender crops such as peppers, eggplant and okra like even more warmth.

A worked example for spring

Say your average last spring freeze is May 1. Tomatoes start indoors 8 to 6 weeks before, from March 6 to March 20, and go outside 1 to 2 weeks after, from May 8 to May 15. Peas go in 6 to 4 weeks before the freeze, from March 20 to April 3. If your last freeze is April 1 instead, every date moves a month earlier. That is why the same crop has a different date in every region.

The fall timing rules

Fall planting counts back from the first fall freeze, because the aim is to give each crop enough time to grow before cold ends the season. The tool uses three groups:

• Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, carrots, beets and peas: plant 12 to 8 weeks before the first fall freeze. These crops are slow, and they sweeten in cool weather.
• Lettuce, spinach, radishes and cilantro: plant 8 to 4 weeks before the first fall freeze. These are quick crops that finish in 3 to 8 weeks.
• Bush beans, cucumbers and zucchini: these cannot take frost, so the tool counts back from the first freeze by the days to maturity plus 3 weeks, and gives a two-week window ending on that date. Because they are warm-season crops, this is a short, late-summer window.

For example, with a first fall freeze of October 15, the slow group goes in July 23 to August 20, and the quick group August 20 to September 17. Our latest planting date before frost calculator works out the cut-off for any single crop.

The “still time” rule

Planting windows are the best times, not the only times. Many crops can be planted later and still do well, so the tool adds a second list with two simple rules. For a warm-season crop, it counts the days from your date to the first fall freeze and compares them with the days the crop needs to mature, plus a week of cushion. If there is enough time, the crop is listed, along with those numbers. For a cool-season crop such as peas or spinach, it lists the crop for up to three weeks after the best window closes, as long as it is not too far into spring, since these crops dislike hot weather.

Average dates or cautious dates?

A frost date is an average, so some years it comes earlier and some years later. The tool offers two versions:

• Average dates are the middle of the records. Half of the years have a later last spring freeze, so there is a real chance of a late frost on the date.
• Cautious dates are chosen so that only about 1 year in 10 has a freeze after the spring date or before the fall date. They give a later spring start and an earlier fall deadline, and they are the safe choice for tender crops.

Many gardeners use average dates for hardy crops and cautious dates for tomatoes, peppers and other tender plants. You can run the tool both ways and compare. Our frost dates by ZIP code page shows the whole range of dates for your station.

Seeds, transplants and starting indoors

The “what to do” column tells you how to put each crop in the ground:

• Sow seed outdoors means planting seed directly in the bed. It suits fast, hardy crops, and root crops that dislike being moved, such as carrots and beets.
• Transplant seedlings outdoors means setting out young plants, either ones you started indoors or ones you bought. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and broccoli are usually grown this way. Seedlings raised indoors need to be hardened off first, which our hardening off schedule calculator plans day by day.
• Start seeds indoors is the head start for crops with long seasons. Our seed starting calculator and the guide on when to start seeds indoors give more detail, and the grow light cost calculator shows what lights add to your electric bill.

Planting more than once

The best way to stretch a harvest is to plant short rows every two or three weeks instead of everything at once. Lettuce, radishes, beans and carrots all suit this. The succession planting planner builds a full schedule from your frost dates. Fall crops can follow spring ones in the same bed, and the cover crop seed calculator covers what to sow when a bed is finished for the year. If you want to start seeds outdoors in winter, see the winter sowing calculator.

Mild-winter and hot-summer areas

In places where freezes are rare, such as much of Florida, the Gulf Coast and southern California, there is no useful last or first frost date to count from. The tool says so, and does not guess. Warm gardens usually grow their cool-season crops, such as lettuce, peas, broccoli and carrots, from fall through winter, and their warm-season crops in spring and again in late summer. Heat is often the limit there, not cold. Your Cooperative Extension office has a planting guide written for your area.

The same is true in very hot summers elsewhere. Many cool-season crops stall or bolt in summer heat, even in a place that has plenty of time before the fall frost. The tool leaves them out of the summer lists for that reason.

What this tool does not know

• Your microclimate. A south-facing wall, a low spot where cold air settles or a sheltered city yard can shift frost by a week or more. Our garden sun and shade calculator shows how much sun a spot gets.
• Soil temperature. Seeds of crops such as beans and corn germinate poorly in cold soil, even after the last frost. If spring has been cold, wait a few days.
• Your variety. Seed packets give their own days to maturity and planting advice. A short-season tomato can be planted later than a long-season one.
• The weather this year. The tool uses 30-year averages, so a cold spring or a warm fall can move the real dates.

Treat the results as a planning guide, and check your local forecast before planting tender crops. If you are building a garden from scratch, our guide on how to start a vegetable garden puts planting times in context, and the planting calendar shows the whole year at once.

Frequently asked questions