What needs doing in your garden this month? Enter your zip code, choose a month, and this monthly vegetable garden checklist gives you a to-do list timed to your own frost dates. Tick the boxes as you go, or print it for the shed door.
Know your own frost dates? Type them in.
Tick the boxes as you go. Print it and tape it inside the shed door.
Every chore on this list is timed from your own frost dates, not from the calendar alone. November in Oregon and November in Minnesota call for very different garden work.
Enter your zip code, and the checklist finds your USDA zone and your average last spring frost and first fall frost. Then it picks the chores that belong in the month you choose.
Tomato seeds go on your list 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost. Draining the hoses shows up the week your first fall frost usually arrives. Garlic goes on the list in the weeks around your first fall frost.
The list is a reminder of everything you might do, not a list of everything you must do. Not every gardener grows potatoes or saves seeds, so skip whatever doesn't fit your garden. It's all there so nothing important gets missed.
Know your own frost dates? Type them in, and the list follows them. Local dates from a neighbor or your extension office are often more accurate than any zone average.
Click "Print My Checklist" for a one-page to-do list with check boxes and that month's garden picture.
Use the "Next Month" button to print the whole year ahead and keep the pages in your garden journal. Our free vegetable garden journal has room for notes on what you planted and when.
Prefer a checklist by season? Our free vegetable garden checklist page has four illustrated seasonal checklists to download and print.
Frost is the clock every vegetable garden runs on. Seeds started too early grow leggy indoors, and tender plants set out too soon can die in a single cold night.
In fall, the first frost decides when the tomatoes come in, when the squash needs curing, and when the hoses should be put away before they freeze and split.
That's why this checklist counts weeks from your frost dates. Our personal planting calendar uses the same dates to show when to plant each vegetable, and our What Can I Still Plant? tool tells you which crops still have time to grow before frost.