Spring vegetable garden planting schedule
Spring planting isn't a single event. It's a rolling process that starts weeks before your last frost and continues for a month or more after it. The gardeners who get the biggest harvests aren't the ones who plant everything on one Saturday in May. They're the ones who stagger their plantings, putting cold-tolerant crops in early and warm-season crops in later.
Here's a week-by-week schedule, organized around your last frost date. I'll use "LF" as shorthand for last frost date. If your last frost is April 20, then "LF minus 6 weeks" means around March 9.
8 to 6 weeks before last frost
This is when the cold-hardy stuff goes in the ground. If you can work the soil (it's not frozen or waterlogged), you can plant:
- Peas. They actually prefer cool soil and will germinate at 40°F. Soak seeds overnight first.
- Spinach. Direct sow. It bolts in heat, so getting it in early gives you the longest harvest window.
- Onion sets or transplants. These tolerate frost without blinking.
- Radishes. The fastest vegetable you can grow. Some varieties mature in 25 days.
At the same time, you should be starting these indoors if you haven't already: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, and cabbage.
4 to 6 weeks before last frost
Now you're adding more cool-season crops to the outdoor beds:
- Lettuce (direct sow or transplant). It handles light frost fine.
- Carrots. Direct sow only; they hate being transplanted. Thin to 2 inches apart once they sprout.
- Beets. Same deal as carrots. Direct sow, thin later.
- Swiss chard. Tougher than it looks. Can take a light freeze.
- Kale. Practically indestructible in cold weather.
- Broccoli and cabbage transplants (if you started them 8 weeks ago indoors).
This is also a good time to do a soil test if you haven't in a couple of years. Your county extension office usually offers cheap or free tests. Amending soil now gives it time to settle before the heavy planting happens.
2 to 4 weeks before last frost
You're getting close. The soil is warming up. This window is for:
- Potatoes. Plant seed potatoes 4 inches deep. They tolerate light frost.
- More lettuce succession planting. If you planted lettuce 4 weeks ago, plant another round now. This staggers your harvest so you're not drowning in salad greens for two weeks and then have none.
- Arugula. Fast-growing, spicy, bolt-prone in heat. Get it in now.
- Turnips and kohlrabi. Underrated vegetables. Both prefer cool weather.
Not sure when your last frost date is? Enter your ZIP code in our planting calendar to get exact dates for all these crops.
Last frost week
If the weather forecast looks clear for the next 10 days, you can start putting out warm-season transplants with some protection on hand:
- Tomato transplants. Have row cover or old bedsheets ready in case of a surprise late frost.
- Pepper transplants. They're less forgiving of cold than tomatoes. Wait a few more days if nighttime temps are below 50°F.
Also direct sow: beans, corn (if soil temp is above 60°F), and more beet and carrot successions.
1 to 2 weeks after last frost
Now the soil has warmed up and the risk of frost is low. This is when you plant:
- Cucumbers. Direct sow or transplant. They grow fast in warm soil.
- Squash (summer and winter). Needs warm soil. Direct sow 2-3 seeds per hill.
- Melons. Same requirements as squash. Warmth-loving.
- Basil. Can go outside now but will sulk if nights drop below 50°F.
- Eggplant transplants. Even more cold-sensitive than peppers.
3 to 4 weeks after last frost
If you haven't planted your warm-season crops yet, this is the last comfortable window. After this, you're starting to lose growing season (in northern zones) or heading into summer heat (in southern zones).
This is also when you should be planting a second round of beans. Bush beans produce for about 3 weeks then slow down. Planting a new round every 2-3 weeks extends the harvest into fall.
Things people forget
Succession planting. I mentioned it with lettuce and beans, but it applies to most short-season crops. One planting of radishes gives you radishes for a week. Planting every two weeks from March through May gives you radishes for two months.
Soil temperature vs. air temperature. A 70°F day means nothing if your soil is still 45°F. Warm-season crops need soil warmth to grow. Raised beds warm up faster than in-ground beds. Dark-colored mulch or black plastic can speed up soil warming by a week or more.
Wind protection. Young transplants struggle with wind more than cold. A simple windbreak (even a board leaned at an angle on the windward side) makes a real difference during the first week after transplanting.
A note on southern gardens
If you're in zones 8-10, this schedule shifts earlier. Your "spring" planting of cool-season crops might happen in December or January. Warm-season crops go in February or March. And you have a second planting window in fall that northern gardeners don't get. The planting calendar adjusts for your specific zone automatically.
Putting it together
The point of a schedule like this is to use your garden continuously rather than all at once. A well-planned spring garden has something going in the ground almost every week from late winter through early summer. It's more work up front, but the payoff is a longer, steadier harvest. And honestly, once you get in the rhythm of it, the weekly planting sessions are the best part of the week.