The Homestead Garden Year: A Season-by-Season Guide

How a productive garden year fits together, from the last frost to the winter plan, with the calendar math and soil numbers worked out for you.

Everything starts with your dates

A garden year runs on two dates: the average last spring frost and the average first fall frost. Your state cooperative extension service or a local weather record can give you both. They are averages, not guarantees, so a hard frost can arrive a week or two either side of them. The length of the growing season is the number of days between them, and it decides what you can grow and how you schedule it.

Once you have the dates, the planting date calculator counts backward and forward from them to give sowing and transplant dates for each crop. The rest of this guide explains the thinking behind those dates.

Winter and early spring: plan, order and prepare

Winter is for planning. Decide how much food you want, check last year's records and order seed early. The garden yield and space calculator estimates the bed area needed for the amount of food you want, so you can size beds before you buy anything. If you are building raised beds, calculate the soil: a 4-foot by 8-foot bed filled 12 inches deep is 32 cubic feet, or about 1.2 cubic yards. The raised bed soil calculator adds a settling allowance and a mix recipe, and a soil test from your extension office will tell you what your ground needs.

Indoor seed starting begins roughly this far before your average last frost:

Crop	Start seed indoors
Onions and leeks from seed	10 to 12 weeks before
Peppers and eggplant	8 to 10 weeks before
Tomatoes	6 to 8 weeks before
Broccoli, cabbage, kale	4 to 6 weeks before
Lettuce	3 to 4 weeks before
Cucumbers, squash, melons	2 to 4 weeks before

These are common guidelines, and varieties and local conditions vary, so check the seed packet for the grower's recommendation.

Spring: cool-season crops, then tender crops

Hardy crops go in as soon as the soil can be worked, often 2 to 6 weeks before the last frost: peas, spinach, lettuce, radishes, onions, potatoes, carrots, beets and the cabbage family. Tender crops wait until after the last frost, and many need warm soil as well: tomatoes, peppers, beans, corn, cucumbers, squash and melons. Corn and beans germinate poorly in cold, wet soil, so waiting for a soil temperature of at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit pays off.

Harden off transplants over about a week by setting them outside for a few hours a day and lengthening the time. Protect early plantings with row cover or a cold frame, and keep an eye on the forecast. Many gardeners stagger plantings by a week or two so that a single late frost does not wipe out everything.

Soil, compost and fertility

Healthy soil produces more than any amount of fertilizer. Add compost each year, keep the soil covered with mulch or a cover crop, and avoid walking on beds. A compost pile works fastest when the mix of carbon-rich browns (leaves, straw, cardboard) and nitrogen-rich greens (grass, scraps, manure) is near 25 to 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen by weight. The compost ratio calculator estimates the ratio of your pile and its moisture, and the worm bin calculator sizes a bin for kitchen scraps. If a soil test shows low pH, the lime product calculator and fertilizer N-P-K calculator convert a recommendation into product amounts.

Summer: water, weeds and succession

A common guideline is about 1 inch of water a week from rain and irrigation combined, more in hot, dry or sandy conditions. Deep, less frequent watering encourages roots to go down, and mulch reduces evaporation and weeds. Water in the morning, at the base of the plants, to reduce leaf disease.

Succession planting keeps beds working. When a crop finishes, replant the space with something that fits the remaining season. Sow fast crops such as lettuce, radishes and beans every two to three weeks for a steady supply instead of a single glut. Rotating crop families from bed to bed each year reduces pests and disease and balances what the soil supplies.

Late summer: plant the fall garden

The fall garden is planted in mid to late summer. To find the last planting date for a fall crop, count back from your average first fall frost: add the crop's days to maturity and about 2 weeks to allow for slower growth in shortening days. For a crop with 60 days to maturity and a first frost on October 15, plant by about July 31. Hardy crops such as kale, carrots, beets, spinach and turnips often taste better after a light frost.

Fall: harvest, store and put the garden to bed

Harvest tender crops before a hard frost, and cure winter squash, onions and potatoes so they store well. Preserve the surplus using the methods in the preserving guide. Clear spent plants, remove diseased material rather than composting it, and cover beds with mulch, a cover crop or compost. Fruit trees go in during the dormant season, and the orchard spacing calculator shows spacing and which varieties need a pollination partner.

Saving seed

Saving seed from open-pollinated varieties lets you adapt crops to your garden and cut costs. To keep varieties pure, plants of the same species must be isolated by distance or by barriers or timing to prevent crossing. The seed saving isolation calculator gives distances by crop. Start with easy self-pollinating crops such as beans, peas, lettuce and tomatoes before trying squash or corn, which cross readily.

Keep records

A simple notebook pays off every year. Record what you planted and when, how it performed, the first and last frost dates you actually saw, pests and diseases, and what you would change. After two or three seasons, your own data is more useful than any average.

A year at a glance

Season	Focus
Winter	Plan, order seed, soil test, build beds, start onions and peppers indoors
Early spring	Sow hardy crops, start tomatoes indoors, prepare soil
Late spring	Transplant after the last frost, sow warm-season crops, mulch
Summer	Water, weed, succession plant, harvest and preserve
Late summer	Plant fall crops, save seed
Fall	Harvest, store, preserve, mulch, plant fruit trees

Common mistakes to avoid

Planting tender crops too early because of a warm spell.
Making raised beds too shallow or buying too little soil to allow for settling.
Overfeeding with nitrogen and getting leaves instead of fruit.
Planting everything at once instead of in succession.
Missing the fall planting window because it falls in the hottest part of summer.

For raising animals that feed the garden, see the chicken guide. Check the disclaimer before relying on any figure here.

Frequently asked questions

When is it safe to plant tomatoes outside?

After the last frost, when nights stay above about 50 degrees Fahrenheit and the soil has warmed. Many gardeners wait a week or two after the average last frost date to be safe.

How do I find my frost dates?

Your state cooperative extension office and local weather records publish average last spring and first fall frost dates. Treat them as averages, since actual frosts can arrive earlier or later.

How much compost should I add each year?

A common guideline is a layer of 1 to 2 inches on top of beds each year. A soil test shows whether your beds need more or less.

Are raised beds better than in-ground gardening?

They warm sooner in spring, drain well and are easier to manage on poor or compacted ground, but they cost more to build and dry out faster. Both work, and many homesteads use both.