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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5th – 7th
Extra good for peppers, tomatoes, peas and other vine crops. Fine for planting any aboveground crop where the climate permits.
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8th – 9th
Barren days, do no planting.
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10th – 11th
Fine for planting beans, peppers, cucumbers, melons, and other aboveground crops where climate is suitable.
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12th – 14th
Poor days for planting, seeds tend to rot in ground.
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15th – 16th
Plant seedbeds and flower gardens. Best planting days for aboveground crops, especially peas, beans, cucumbers, and squash where climate is suitable.
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17th – 21st
A barren time. Best for killing weeds, briars, poison ivy, and other plant pests. Clear wood lots and fencerows.
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22nd – 23rd
A favorable time for sowing grains, hay, and forage crops. Plant flowers. Favorable days for planting root crops.
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24th – 26th
Start seedbeds. Good days for transplanting. Plant carrots, turnips, onions, beets, Irish potatoes, other root crops in the South. Also good for leafy vegetables.
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27th – 28th
Do no planting. Good harvest days.
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29th – 30th
Good planting days for root crops where climate permits.
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31st – 31st
A good time to kill plant pests or do plowing. Poor for planting. Good harvest day.
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1st – 1st
Barren day. Fine for clearing, plowing, fertilizing, and killing plant pests.
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2nd – 3rd
Extra good for cucumbers, peas, cantaloupes, and other vine crops. Set strawberry plants. Plant peppers, sweet corn, tomatoes, and other aboveground crops in southern Florida, California, and Texas.
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4th – 5th
Seeds planted now will grow poorly and yield little.
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.
