Southern New Zealand planting calendar

What to sow each month

Each card lists the crops to sow or plant in that month in the cool south; the current month is marked. Winter is almost empty, and October and November are the busiest months.

The full chart

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

sow or plantnot recommendedthis month

A short summer between frosts

Kings Seeds' coolest zone, with 70–130 days a year above 10 °C, takes in Dunedin, Queenstown and Invercargill, and Christchurch, at about 128 days, sits on its edge. Tui's southern region covers Canterbury, Otago and Southland, and the calendar adds Taupō and the central plateau, which are about as frosty as Canterbury.

The shorter season shows in the sowing charts. Kings' southern chart holds pumpkins, zucchini and basil back until November, and Tui's southern regions start frost-tender crops in October, never September.

Frost: the long season

NIWA's 1991–2020 averages put ground frosts at about 50 a year in Dunedin, 67 in Invercargill, 78 in Timaru, 85 in Christchurch and 117 in both Alexandra and Queenstown. In Christchurch they run from April to November, and in Queenstown, Alexandra and Invercargill from March to November.

Spring is the critical time. Christchurch still averages 5.6 ground frosts in October and 2.6 in November, Invercargill 3.7 and 1.6, Alexandra 7.2 and 2.3, and Queenstown 9.9 and 3.9. That is why tender crops go in from October at the earliest, with frost cloth or a cloche ready; the Canterbury Horticultural Society suggests warm-season plants can go out at the end of October. Pick your town in the calendar to see which crops are flagged each month.

The southern year

• Spring (September–November): September is for hardy crops – peas, broad beans, the cabbage family, leafy greens, potatoes, strawberries, asparagus and rhubarb. From October, with 33 crops a month in the calendar, the frost-tender summer crops follow as your frosts ease.
• Summer (December–February): the last summer crops in December, tomatoes and zucchini into January, and the cabbage family raised for autumn and winter.
• Autumn (March–May): broad beans, kale, Asian greens, English spinach, onions (February–March), leeks and Brussels sprouts, then garlic from May.
• Winter (June–August): the quietest season: garlic until July and strawberry runners from July. Most sowing waits for September.

Towns in this zone

The southern towns in the calendar, with NIWA's 1991–2020 ground-frost averages from the nearest station. Taupō is here for its central-plateau frosts, although Tui groups it with the Waikato.

Questions