Cool-climate planting calendar

What to sow each month

Each card lists the crops to sow or plant in that month in the cool zone; the current month is marked. Spring is the busiest season, and autumn the second.

The full chart

Every crop in the calendar, month by month. Green cells are the months to sow seed or plant seedlings in the cool zone; the column on the right says the same in words.

sow or plantnot recommendedthis month

Short summers, long frosty winters

Cool is relative: Canberra's January days average 28 °C. What sets the zone apart is how long and how hard the cold season is. Canberra averages 92 nights a year at 2 °C or below, from April to November, 59 of them at or below freezing, and July nights average −0.1 °C. The Diggers Club defines its cool zone by the few months that average over 15 °C, which limits long-season crops, and Green Harvest notes that beans often can't be sown until late October or early November.

The zone is far from uniform. Hobart, moderated by the sea, averages 13 frosty nights a year and Melbourne's old city station 7. Ballarat averages 45, Orange 62, Goulburn 95 and Cooma 142, with frost possible there in any month of the year.

On the NSW Central Tablelands, the state's agriculture department puts the frost-free season at about three months at Bathurst and Oberon and five at Orange. Commercial growers there sow pumpkins from October to December, sweet corn in November and December and potatoes from October to December, all inside this calendar's cool-zone windows.

The last frost and Melbourne Cup Day

The old rule in Victoria and Canberra is to plant tomatoes on Melbourne Cup Day, the first Tuesday in November. ABC News tested it against Canberra's records since 1940. On average the last potentially frosty morning came two days after the Cup; there was one after the race in half of all years; and being 80 % sure of no more frost meant waiting 17 days, into mid-November.

From the Bureau of Meteorology's averages, counting months that average at least one night at 2 °C or below, the frost season runs from April to November in Canberra and Ballarat, April to October in Launceston, June to September in Hobart and June to August in Melbourne. The calendar's windows for summer crops open in September and October, so in the frostier towns the first weeks need frost cover or a later start. Choose your town in the calendar and frost-tender crops are flagged while frosts are still likely there.

The cool-climate year

• Spring (September–November): the busiest time, with 26 crops in the calendar in September and 32–34 in October and November. Sow tomatoes, capsicum, chilli and eggplant in trays indoors in September and plant them out after the last frost. Sow cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, melons, sweet corn and beans direct from October, as the soil warms. Potatoes go in from September, timed so the shoots come up after the last frost.
• Summer (December–February): the last sowings of summer crops in December and January, and the start of the winter brassicas – broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and kale – raised in trays and planted out in late summer.
• Autumn (March–May): garlic from March, broad beans, English spinach, rocket, Asian greens and lettuce, and onions from April.
• Winter (June–August): the quietest time, with 8–10 crops a month: peas and snow peas, broad beans, English spinach, onions and garlic, plus asparagus and rhubarb crowns.

Towns in this zone

The cool-zone towns in the calendar, with the Bureau of Meteorology station behind each frost figure. The frost season is the months that average a night or more at 2 °C or below.

Questions