What to Plant Now — By ZIP Code & Date

Timing is everything in the garden. Enter your ZIP code and we’ll tell you what to plant outdoors right now, what to start indoors, and what’s worth sowing for fall — all timed to your area’s average frost dates.

Gardener's hands holding vegetable seed packets over a planting calendar notebook in a fall garden — Illustration: Seed packets and a planting calendar — matching sowing dates to your frost dates is the whole game.

Enter your ZIP code and we’ll match today’s date against your area’s frost dates to tell you what to plant outdoors now, what to start indoors, and what’s worth sowing for fall.

ZIP code

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How it’s figured

For a ZIP code we use the nearest of 85 reporting cities and compare today’s date with that city’s average last spring frost and first fall frost. Those are long-term averages from published frost-date tables (Old Farmer’s Almanac and Extension sources) — station data, not a measurement at your exact address, so microclimates and elevation can shift real dates by days or weeks. ZIP locations come from the US Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer. Crop timing ranges are compiled from published Extension and almanac growing references. Your seed packet and local Extension office know your varieties and microclimate best.

Seed-starting trays with handwritten plant labels on a patio table — Illustration: Labeled seed-starting trays let you start cool-season crops indoors weeks before your last frost.

Young seedlings emerging in rows in dark garden soil — Illustration: Direct-sown seedlings coming up in rows — the payoff of planting at the right time.