Planting Calendar from the Farmers’ Almanac
Welcome to the Farmers’ Almanac Planting Calendar, also known as Gardening by the Moon calendar. This planting calendar helps you pick the best dates for popular garden tasks—starting seeds, pruning shrubs, harvesting, weeding, and much more—according to our 200-year-old formula that relies on phases and position of the Moon. Our readers swear they “won’t plant without it.”
Learn why we “Garden by the Moon.”
The dates listed below are consistent across all growing zones. This means you must consider your weather and climate before following our suggestions. For best results, talk with your local greenhouse or agricultural extension office for the optimal window of time within which to use these dates.
Note, you can find a glossary of our gardening terms below the calendar.
Happy gardening!
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25th – 26th
Excellent for sowing grains, hay, and forage crops. Plant flowers. Good days for planting peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and other aboveground crops in southern Florida, Texas, and California.
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27th – 29th
Start seedbeds. Excellent time for planting aboveground crops that can be planted now, including leafy vegetables which will do well.
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30th – 30th
Clear fencerows, wood lots, and fields, but do no planting.
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1st – 1st
Do clearing and plowing, but no planting.
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2nd – 3rd
Plant tomatoes, peas, beans, and other aboveground crops, indoors in the North and outdoors in lower South.
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4th – 5th
Poor planting days. Kill poison ivy, weeds, clear land, but no planting.
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6th – 7th
Extra good for vine crops. Favorable days for planting aboveground crops where climate is suitable.
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8th – 9th
Barren days, do no planting.
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10th – 12th
Good days for transplanting. Good days for planting beets, carrots, onions, turnips, and other hardy root crops where climate is suitable.
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13th – 14th
Poor days for planting, seeds tend to rot in ground.
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15th – 17th
Start seedbeds and flower gardens. Good days for transplanting. Best planting days for fall potatoes, turnips, onions, carrots, beets, and other root crops where climate is suitable.
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18th – 21st
A most barren period, best for killing plant pests or doing chores around the farm. Good harvest days.
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22nd – 24th
Fine for sowing grains, hay, and forage crops. Plant flowers. Favorable days for planting root crops.
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25th – 26th
Start seedbeds. Favorable days for planting aboveground crops, and leafy vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, kale, and celery where climate is suitable.
Official Gardening Terms Cheat Sheet From the Farmers’ Almanac
Above ground crops — this term is used to describe crops that produce their yield above the soil, such as corn, peppers, squash, etc.
Root Crops — crops that produce their yield below the soil, such as potatoes, radishes, carrots, etc.
Seedbeds — a bed of soil cultivated for planting seeds or seedlings before being transplanted.
Seedlings — young plants, especially ones that grow from seeds rather than from a cutting.
Transplanting — to uproot and replant a growing plant or an already well-established plant.
“Favorable,” “Good,” and “Best” are all considered beneficial days for planting seeds, for example. “Good” and “Favorable” both mean the same thing. However, “Best” is considered the prime, optimal day for planting seeds.
