Plain-language guides to the timing decisions behind every vegetable garden — frost dates, starting seeds indoors, succession sowing, hardening off, and planning a fall crop. Written to be genuinely useful whether or not you use the calendar.
Whether your tomatoes are "behind" depends almost entirely on what you planted. A variety-by-variety reference — determinate vs. indeterminate, days to maturity, and expected height — plus the late-July problems worth acting on and the date to stop new flowers in your zone.
Updated July 2026 · Read the guide →
Almost every US gardener can still plant something in August — but what depends entirely on your zone. Here is the zone-by-zone breakdown for USDA zones 3–10, with sowing windows computed from each zone's first fall frost.
Updated July 2026 · Read the guide →
Your calendar has four kinds of dates — start indoors, transplant, direct-sow, and harvest. Here is what each one means and how to act on it week by week.
Updated June 2026 · Read the guide →
Your average last spring frost and first fall frost decide when nearly everything gets planted. Here is what they mean, why they're averages, and how to use them without getting caught out.
Updated June 2026 · Read the guide →
Which crops to start inside, when to sow, and how to get stocky, healthy seedlings instead of pale, leggy ones — light, warmth, water, and timing.
Updated June 2026 · Read the guide →
Some seeds resent being moved; others need a head start indoors. Matching the method to the crop is the difference between a full bed and a row of gaps.
Updated June 2026 · Read the guide →
Your hardiness zone is the foundation of every planting decision — but it measures one specific thing. Here's what the number tells you, what it doesn't, and how to use it well.
Updated June 2026 · Read the guide →
A single sowing of lettuce or beans floods you for two weeks, then quits. Succession planting trades the glut for a steady supply — here's how to plan it.
Updated June 2026 · Read the guide →
Many gardeners stop sowing at midsummer and miss an entire second season. Counting back from your first fall frost opens up months of cool-weather crops.
Updated June 2026 · Read the guide →
Seedlings raised indoors aren't ready for direct sun and wind. A week of gradual exposure prevents the transplant shock that stalls unhardened plants for weeks.
Updated June 2026 · Read the guide →