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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28th – 29th
Excellent for sowing seedbeds and flower gardens. Plant tomatoes, beans, peppers, corn, cotton, and other aboveground crops on these most fruitful days.
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30th – 30th
Poor period for planting. Kill plant pests, clear fencerows, or clear land.
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1st – 4th
A most barren period. Kill plant pests and do general farm work.
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5th – 7th
Sow grains and forage crops. Plant flowers. Favorable for planting peas, beans, tomatoes, and other fall crops bearing aboveground.
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8th – 9th
Start seedbeds. Extra good for fall cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, mustard greens, and other leafy vegetables. Good for any aboveground crop that can be planted now.
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10th – 11th
Barren days, neither plant nor sow.
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12th – 13th
First day is when any aboveground crops that can be planted now will do well. Second day is a good day for planting beets, carrots, salsify, Irish potatoes, and other root crops.
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14th – 15th
Good days for killing weeds, briars, and other plant pests. Poor for planting.
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16th – 17th
Set strawberry plants. Good days for transplanting. Good days for planting beets, carrots, radishes, salsify, turnips, peanuts, and other root crops. Also good for vine crops.
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18th – 19th
A barren period.
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20th – 22nd
Good days for transplanting. Root crops that can be planted now will yield well.
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23rd – 24th
Poor days for planting, seeds tend to rot in ground. Good harvest days.
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25th – 27th
Plant seedbeds and flower gardens. Good days for transplanting. Most fruitful days for planting root crops.
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.
