Temperate planting calendar

What to sow each month

Each card lists the crops to sow or plant in that month in the temperate zone; the current month is marked. Spring and autumn are the busiest months, but no month is empty.

The full chart

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

sow or plantnot recommendedthis month

Two rain patterns in one zone

The temperate zone covers two quite different rain patterns. Sydney gets rain all year, 68–133 mm in every month. Perth and Adelaide have a Mediterranean pattern of wet winters and dry summers: Perth averages 96–154 mm a month from May to August but only 10–14 mm a month from December to February, and Adelaide 61–78 mm a month in May–August against 16–20 mm in January and February.

For vegetables that means similar sowing months but different watering. In Perth and Adelaide summer crops depend on irrigation and mulch, and hot spells are common: Perth Airport averages 29 days a year at 35 °C or above and Adelaide 22, against 3 in Sydney. In winter, the rain does much of the watering.

Frost: light, and mostly inland

On the coast frost is rare or absent. The Sydney Observatory Hill, Newcastle Nobbys and Wollongong stations average no nights at 2 °C or below, and Perth Airport 2.5 a year. A short drive inland it is a different story: Richmond in western Sydney averages 33 frosty nights a year, from May to September, and Parafield in Adelaide's northern suburbs 9, from June to August.

In a frost-prone suburb, treat the first weeks of each summer-crop window as a risk and wait for the last frost, or keep frost cloth handy. Toowoomba, Port Macquarie and Bunbury in the calendar all average a frosty night or more a month in winter, and the calendar flags frost-tender crops for them.

The temperate year

• Spring (September–November): the busiest time, with 31–32 crops a month in the calendar: all the summer crops, from tomatoes and capsicum to cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, melons, sweet corn and beans, plus potatoes, carrots, beetroot and most herbs.
• Summer (December–February): keep sowing beans, cucumbers and sweet corn for a late crop, and start the winter brassicas in trays: broccoli from November, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts from December.
• Autumn (March–May): peas, broad beans (from April), English spinach, rocket, Asian greens, onions (from April), garlic, leeks and the root crops.
• Winter (June–August): the quietest time, with 10–11 crops in June and July: peas, broad beans, lettuce, English spinach, onions and spring onions, plus strawberry runners in June and asparagus and rhubarb crowns. Seed potatoes go in from July, and in August tomatoes, capsicum and chilli can be started in trays.

Towns in this zone

The temperate towns in the calendar, with the Bureau of Meteorology station behind each frost figure. Coastal stations are mostly frost-free; inland suburbs are not.

Questions