🧄 When to Plant Garlic
Plant in fall, 4-6 weeks before ground freezes
📅 Planting Calendar by USDA Zone
Garlic is a cool-season crop — plant it around your last spring frost, and you can often start it earlier indoors or sow again for a fall harvest. Find the exact start-indoors, transplant, and direct-sow dates for your USDA zone in the table below.
Select your zone to highlight your dates. All dates are calculated from each zone's average frost dates — see how we calculate them.
| Zone | Last Frost | Start Indoors | Transplant | Direct Sow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 2A | May 30 | — | — | Nov 29 |
| Zone 3B | May 15 | — | — | Nov 14 |
| Zone 4A | May 8 | — | — | Nov 7 |
| Zone 4B | May 1 | — | — | Oct 31 |
| Zone 5A | Apr 25 | — | — | Oct 25 |
| Zone 5B | Apr 18 | — | — | Oct 18 |
| Zone 6A | Apr 21 | — | — | Oct 21 |
| Zone 6B | Apr 10 | — | — | Oct 10 |
| Zone 7A | Apr 5 | — | — | Oct 5 |
| Zone 7B | Mar 28 | — | — | Sep 27 |
| Zone 8A | Mar 20 | — | — | Sep 19 |
| Zone 8B | Mar 12 | — | — | Sep 11 |
| Zone 9A | Feb 28 | — | — | Aug 30 |
| Zone 9B | Feb 15 | — | — | Aug 17 |
| Zone 10A | Feb 1 | — | — | Aug 3 |
| Zone 10B | Jan 15 | — | — | Jul 17 |
| Zone 11A | Jan 1 | — | — | Jul 3 |
Garlic is planted in fall and harvested in summer. It’s one of the most rewarding low-maintenance crops.
Top Growing Tips
- Plant individual cloves in fall, 6 weeks before ground freezes
- Hardneck varieties for cold climates (zones 3-6), softneck for warm (zones 7+)
- Mulch heavily after planting to protect through winter
- Cut scapes (flower stalks) in spring to redirect energy to bulbs
- Harvest when lower 1/3 of leaves have browned
Companion Planting
Good companions: tomatoes, roses, fruit trees, beets
Avoid planting near: beans, peas, asparagus
Harvest Timeline
8-9 months from fall planting
Growing garlic in your region?
These dates come from your zone's frost windows. For the full month-by-month plan — succession sowing, variety picks, and timing tuned to your climate, not just your zone — our regional vegetable-gardening guides cover your area start to finish.
Find your regional growing guide