Central New Zealand planting calendar

What to sow each month

Each card lists the crops to sow or plant in that month in central New Zealand; the current month is marked. Spring is the busiest season by far.

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 temperate zone; the column on the right says the same in words.

sow or plantnot recommendedthis month

Mild coasts, frosty valleys

Tui's planting guides give most of the North Island below Auckland, and the top of the South Island, the same middle-region dates. Kings Seeds splits the same area by growing days above 10 °C: Hamilton, Napier, Gisborne, Whanganui and New Plymouth get 180–215 a year, while Palmerston North, Wellington, Nelson, Rotorua, Blenheim and Masterton get 130–179.

Frost varies even more. NIWA's 1991–2020 averages show about 3 ground frosts a year at Wellington's Kelburn station, 6.5 at Whanganui and 8 at New Plymouth, but 37 at Rotorua, 41 at Palmerston North, about 45 at Hamilton, 48 at Blenheim and 75 at Nelson Airport. A coastal garden can often plant weeks before one in a frosty valley.

Labour Weekend and the last frost

Labour Weekend, at the end of October, is New Zealand's traditional time to plant tomatoes and other summer seedlings. Tui calls it the prime planting time across the country, within a September–November window once the risk of frost has passed, and Yates suggests planting out at Labour Weekend once seedlings have been hardened off.

NIWA's numbers show why one date suits some places better than others. Hamilton still averages 5.5 ground frosts in September, 2.8 in October and 1.0 in November, and Nelson 8.6, 3.7 and 1.1. On the Wellington and Taranaki coasts frost has almost finished by September. Pick your town in the calendar and it flags frost-tender crops in months that still average a ground frost or more there.

The central New Zealand year

• Spring (September–November): the busiest time, with 34–37 crops a month in the calendar. Frost-tender seedlings go out from September on the coast and after the last frost inland; beans, sweet corn, melons, chillies and kūmara wait until October. Potatoes, carrots, beetroot, parsnips and most herbs go in too.
• Summer (December–February): the last summer crops in December, zucchini and cucumbers into January, and the cabbage family raised for autumn and winter.
• Autumn (March–May): broad beans, peas (April), kale, Asian greens, carrots, onions (April), leeks and Brussels sprouts, then garlic from May.
• Winter (June–August): the quietest time: garlic until July, strawberry runners and cabbage, then peas, onions, lettuce, asparagus crowns and rhubarb from August.

Towns in this zone

The central New Zealand towns in the calendar, with NIWA's 1991–2020 ground-frost averages from the nearest station. Masterton is frostier than most of the zone; Taupō, on the central plateau, is in the cool zone.

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