Auckland and Northland planting calendar

What to sow each month

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

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 warm north zone; the column on the right says the same in words.

sow or plantnot recommendedthis month

New Zealand's mildest gardens

Kings Seeds groups New Zealand by the number of days a year above 10 °C, a common threshold for plant growth. Its warmest zone, with 220–265 such days, takes in Whangārei, Kerikeri and Auckland, and Tui's planting guides treat Northland and Auckland as one northern region. That long, mild season is why summer crops can start here in September.

What the north lacks is a cold winter. Kings describes Brussels sprouts as liking one, and Tui's region tool lists no planting months for them in Northland.

Frost: rare, but not unknown

NIWA's 1991–2020 averages show how mild the north is. Kaitaia records a ground frost about once in seven years, and Auckland Airport about four a year, in June and July. Inland and in hollows it is a different story: NIWA's Auckland climatology records about 14 ground frosts a year at Pukekohe and 27 at Henderson, so gardens in the south and west of the region should still wait for the frosts to finish before planting tender crops.

NIWA counts a ground frost when the air just above short grass falls to −1 °C or lower. That happens more often than a frost at thermometer-screen height, so these counts err on the cautious side.

The northern year

• Spring (September–November): the busiest time, with 33–36 crops a month in the calendar: tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins and beans from September; chillies, sweet corn, melons and kūmara from October; and potatoes, carrots, beetroot, lettuce and most herbs.
• Summer (December–February): summer crops keep going in through December, and tomatoes into January. From January the cabbage family goes in for winter, with Brussels sprouts, onions, parsnips and leeks from February.
• Autumn (March–May): broad beans, peas (April), kale, Asian greens, carrots, onions and leeks, then garlic from May.
• Winter (June–August): the quietest time: garlic until July, strawberry runners, asparagus crowns from July and rhubarb. In August peas, onions, broccoli and lettuce start again, and pumpkins can go in.

Towns in this zone

The northern towns in the calendar, with NIWA's 1991–2020 ground-frost averages from the nearest station.

Questions