A month-by-month planting guide so you always know what to sow and transplant, keeping your garden productive and beautiful through every season.
Plant With the Calendar, Not Against It
The secret to a garden that never quits is simple: something is almost always ready to go in the ground. Rather than a frantic burst of planting in spring and empty beds the rest of the year, successful gardeners plant a little every month, staggering crops so harvests and blooms roll on continuously. This guide is a general framework for a temperate climate, adjust it by a few weeks in either direction based on your frost dates and local conditions.
Keep a good pair of gloves within reach year-round, planting is hands-in-the-dirt work in every season. Botaire's [Gardening Gloves](/products/gardening-gloves) are breathable enough for summer sowing and tough enough for cold, wet winter transplanting.
Winter: Planning and Cool-Season Starts
The quiet months are for setting up the year ahead.
- January: Plan your beds, order seeds, and start slow-growing seeds like onions and leeks indoors. In mild climates, plant bare-root fruit trees.
- February: Start peppers, eggplant, and early tomatoes indoors under lights. Prune dormant fruit trees and plant garlic if you missed fall.
- Sow cool-season greens indoors for an early jump on spring.
Winter planting is mostly indoors and on paper, but it shapes everything that follows.
Spring: The Big Push
This is the busiest planting stretch of the year, and timing around your last frost is everything.
- March: Direct-sow peas, spinach, radishes, and lettuce as soon as soil is workable. Start warm-season crops indoors.
- April: Plant potatoes, carrots, and beets. Harden off seedlings and set out cold-tolerant transplants like broccoli and cabbage.
- May: After the last frost, plant out tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, and beans. Sow warm-season flowers directly.
Stagger your sowings every two weeks for greens and beans to keep harvests coming rather than arriving all at once.
Summer: Succession and the Second Season
Summer isn't just for harvesting, it's for planting the next wave.
- June: Sow fast crops like bush beans and summer squash. Plant heat-loving herbs like basil.
- July: Begin fall planting, start seeds for fall broccoli, cabbage, and kale, and direct-sow carrots and beets for autumn.
- August: Sow cool-season greens, spinach, lettuce, and radishes for a fall harvest as the heat breaks.
Succession planting in summer is what separates a garden that peters out from one that produces into November.
Autumn: The Overlooked Planting Season
Fall is arguably the best time to plant many things, warm soil and cooling air create ideal conditions.
- September: Plant garlic and spring-flowering bulbs like daffodils and tulips. Sow cover crops in emptied beds.
- October: Plant trees, shrubs, and perennials, roots establish beautifully in cool, moist soil. Finish bulb planting.
- November: Get the last garlic in the ground and mulch it well. Plant bare-root trees in mild regions.
What you plant in fall rewards you all next year, often with less effort than spring planting.
Wintering In: December and Reflection
- December: Plant amaryllis and paperwhites indoors for winter blooms. Force bulbs for cheer during the darkest weeks.
- Review the year's notes, what thrived, what struggled, and start planning next year's beds.
- Order seed catalogs and dream a little, it's part of the craft.
A year-round planting rhythm turns gardening from a spring sprint into a steady, rewarding practice. Keep this calendar handy, adapt it to your own climate, and you'll rarely look out at a bare, idle garden again, there's almost always something worth putting in the ground.