| Crop | Sow under cover | Plant out | Sow direct | To first picking | Hardiness | Spacing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato | 6 wk before | 2 wk after | — | 75 days | Tender | 45 × 75 cm |
| Sweet pepper | 8 wk before | 2 wk after | — | 80 days | Tender | 40 × 60 cm |
| Chilli | 9 wk before | 2 wk after | — | 90 days | Tender | 40 × 60 cm |
| Aubergine / eggplant | 8 wk before | 2 wk after | — | 85 days | Tender | 50 × 70 cm |
| Cucumber | 3 wk before | 1 wk after | 2 wk after | 60 days | Tender | 40 × 90 cm |
| Courgette / zucchini | 3 wk before | 1 wk after | 1 wk after | 55 days | Tender | 90 × 90 cm |
| Pumpkin / winter squash | 3 wk before | 1 wk after | 1 wk after | 100 days | Tender | 120 × 150 cm |
| Sweetcorn | 2 wk before | 2 wk after | 1 wk after | 80 days | Tender | 30 × 45 cm |
| French / bush bean | — | — | 1 wk after | 55 days | Tender | 15 × 45 cm |
| Runner / pole bean | 3 wk before | 1 wk after | 1 wk after | 70 days | Tender | 20 × 60 cm |
| Basil | 5 wk before | 2 wk after | — | 60 days | Tender | 25 × 30 cm |
| Potato | — | — | 2 wk before | 90 days | Half hardy | 35 × 70 cm |
| Lettuce | 4 wk before | 2 wk before | 2 wk before | 55 days | Hardy | 25 × 30 cm |
| Chard | 4 wk before | 2 wk before | 2 wk before | 55 days | Hardy | 25 × 40 cm |
| Broccoli | 6 wk before | 2 wk before | — | 70 days | Hardy | 45 × 60 cm |
| Cabbage | 6 wk before | 3 wk before | — | 80 days | Hardy | 45 × 60 cm |
| Carrot | — | — | 2 wk before | 75 days | Hardy | 5 × 30 cm |
| Beetroot | — | — | 3 wk before | 55 days | Hardy | 10 × 30 cm |
| Onion (sets) | — | — | 4 wk before | 100 days | Hardy | 10 × 30 cm |
| Pea | — | — | 5 wk before | 65 days | Hardy | 8 × 45 cm |
| Radish | — | — | 4 wk before | 28 days | Hardy | 4 × 15 cm |
| Spinach | 4 wk before | 3 wk before | 4 wk before | 45 days | Very hardy | 10 × 30 cm |
| Kale | 6 wk before | 3 wk before | 2 wk before | 60 days | Very hardy | 45 × 60 cm |
| Leek | 8 wk before | 1 wk before | — | 120 days | Very hardy | 15 × 30 cm |
How to read it
Find your last spring frost first — the frost date tool gives it by hardiness zone. Everything in the table is counted from that day. "6 wk before" means six weeks earlier; "2 wk after" means two weeks later.
Days to first picking are counted from different points depending on the crop, and this is the detail most charts get wrong. For a crop normally raised under cover and planted out, seed catalogues count from the transplant date. For a crop sown where it grows, they count from sowing. Counting a transplanted crop from its sowing date puts every harvest six to nine weeks early, which is why a tomato appears to be ready in May.
Spacing is in-row × between-row. Those are starting points for good conditions: close them up in a hot dry climate where shading the soil helps, open them out in a cool damp one where foliage that never dries is how blight and mildew establish.
Hardiness is what decides how early you can start
The frost date only constrains crops that frost actually harms, and that is far fewer than most people assume. It is the reason a good deal of this chart sits before the last frost rather than after it.
Tender crops are killed outright — tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, basil, sweetcorn. Nothing in that group goes out until the danger has genuinely passed. Hardy crops are a different proposition: peas five weeks before the last frost, spinach and radish four, carrots and lettuce two. Kale and leeks are not merely frost-tolerant but improved by it, converting starch to sugar as a natural antifreeze — which is why kale after a hard frost tastes noticeably sweeter.
A garden planned only around the last frost date therefore sits empty through the two most useful months of the year. In a short season the hardy crops are most of what makes it productive.
Where to go next
Part of working out when to plant. These three use the same data: