Find your USDA hardiness zone, then explore planting dates for 100 crops
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map divides North America into zones based on average annual minimum winter temperature. Your zone determines your frost-free growing season length — from 94 days in Zone 2A to 364 in Zone 11A. Each zone page below includes a filterable planting calendar for 100 vegetables, herbs, and flowers with exact dates computed from that zone's frost data.
Caring for a lawn alongside your garden? Try our lawn fertilizer calculator to find the right nitrogen rate and application window for your zone, grass type, and season.
KS, NE, OK, ND, SD. Extremes define the prairie: sustained wind, irregular precipitation, and annual temperature swings exceeding 130°F. Growing seasons range from 94 to 123 frost-free days.
IL, IN, IA, MI, MN, MO, OH, WI. Rich prairie soils with compressed growing seasons from 123 to 178 frost-free days. Late spring frosts and early fall freezes bracket the primary planting window.
NY, PA, NJ, CT, MA, ME, NH, VT, RI, DE, MD. Four distinct seasons with rocky and acidic soils. Growing seasons range from 153 to 193 frost-free days across the zone 4b–6a band that covers most of the region.
Five sub-regions from the Panhandle to the Rio Grande Valley. Drought management and dual growing seasons (spring + fall) define the strategy. Growing seasons range from 251 to 273 frost-free days in the primary zones.
FL, HI, coastal Southern CA. Subtropical to tropical conditions with inverted growing calendars — the prime vegetable season runs October through April. Growing seasons range from 298 to 364 frost-free days.
Bay Area, Sacramento Valley, Wine Country, Sierra Foothills, North Coast. Mediterranean climate with dry summers and wet winters — a fundamentally different moisture pattern than same-zone regions elsewhere.
Some regions are defined more by geography and climate pattern than by USDA zone alone. These guides cover zones already listed above but with region-specific growing strategies.
Pacific Northwest
OR, WA · Zones 5a–9b
Maritime climate with cool summers and 37–60 inches of annual rainfall. The PNW cool season is a second growing season — not a shutdown.