Free Garden Planting Calendar Generator
Build a printable planting schedule for your USDA hardiness zone, with start-indoors, plant-out, and approximate harvest dates for common vegetables.
Click "Generate Calendar" to create your calendar.
How to Use This Calendar
Choose the year and your USDA hardiness zone. The schedule is anchored to representative average frost dates for that zone, which are printed at the top of the sheet: seed-starting dates count back from the last spring frost, planting-out dates count forward from it, and harvest dates add each crop's days to maturity.
Treat the dates as a starting point, not a rule. Zone frost dates are averages across a wide band of the country, and your own elevation, exposure, and local microclimate can move them by a week or more in either direction. If you know your own frost dates, shift the whole schedule to match.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Where do the frost dates come from?
- Each zone uses a representative mid-zone average last spring frost and first fall frost, printed at the top of the calendar. They are averages, so adjust for your own site if you know your local dates.
- Why does the zone list stop at 10b?
- Zones 11a and warmer are effectively frost-free, so a schedule anchored to frost dates has nothing to anchor to. Gardeners there plant by wet and dry seasons instead.
- Is days to maturity counted from seed or from transplant?
- From planting out, which is the convention on most seed packets for transplanted crops. For direct-sown crops the plant-out date is the sowing date.
- What does an asterisk on a harvest date mean?
- That the estimated harvest falls after the average first fall frost for your zone. Start earlier under cover, or choose a shorter-season variety.