The single most useful number for timing your garden is your last spring frost date. Almost every planting decision counts backward or forward from it.

The rhythm of the season

  • 8–10 weeks before last frost: start onions, leeks, peppers indoors.
  • 6 weeks before: start tomatoes, eggplant, brassicas indoors.
  • 2–4 weeks before: direct-sow cold-hardy crops — peas, spinach, radish, lettuce.
  • On/after last frost: transplant tomatoes and peppers, direct-sow beans, corn, squash, cucumbers.
  • Mid–late summer: succession-sow greens and start fall brassicas.
  • Before first fall frost: harvest tender crops, plant garlic, sow cover crops.

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