May Planting Guide by Zone
Click on your Zone for details.
Zones 1 – 4
- Start seeds of short-season squash and melons and fast-maturing cucumbers, cantaloupe, and possibly watermelons inside for transplanting outside next month.
- Sprout seed potatoes by moving them from cold storage to room temperature.
- In the last week of the month, remove the winter covering from your strawberries.
- To protect cauliflower and broccoli transplants from root maggots, place heavy paper collars, 4-by-4 inches in diameter, on the soil around the plants’ bases.
- Sow another round of cool-season vegetables outside, such as beets, carrots, lettuce, Swiss chard, and radishes.
- Use row covers over beets to protect them from leaf miners.
Zones 5 – 6
- If the ground has thawed, divide and replant perennials such as bee balm.
- Sow seeds of sweet peas, bachelor’s buttons, and larkspur in flowerbeds.
- When the ground is warm and dry, and the soil has warmed to at least 60°F overnight, transplant out tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, melons, cucumbers, and sweet potatoes. Have overnight protection available for a cold snap.
- Seed a second crop of beets, carrots, radishes, leaf lettuce, and Swiss chard (start the seeds indoors or sow them directly in the garden).
- Sow a final round of spinach in the garden for tender leaves before the weather warms.
- Melons often thrive with additional warming, like growing under a plastic row cover or on top of a layer of black plastic mulch. If you are transplanting starts, be extra careful not to disturb their roots during the process. Provide additional water for the first few days post-transplanting, as they can’t take up moisture effectively until they are established. Monitor frequently to ensure the seedlings aren’t getting too hot.
- Mulch between rows and keep the garden weeded to give emerging seedlings a fair chance. The best time – and often the only shot you get – to control weeds is just after they emerge. The first week of weed growth is the easiest to remove.
- Established asparagus beds will be ready to harvest. Look daily and select spears of about the same size (so they cook at the same time). If you have trouble finding those first spears, mark the bed with stakes so that you can find them next year. Harvest asparagus with a sharp knife, cutting just under the soil level to encourage more growth next year.
- Sow sunflowers, zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos wherever you need an extra splash of color. Scatter or direct sow seeds for pollinator attractants.
- Row covers provide early-season pest protection for cucumbers, melons, and squash. They should be removed when the plants blossom.
Zones 7 – 8
- Plant black-eyed, purple-hulled, and crowder peas, okra, squash, melons, cucumbers, and corn—all can withstand the heat that will arrive in less than two months.
- Keep succession planting basil – it loves the warm weather.
- Give flowers and vegetables a foliar feeding of liquid seaweed or compost tea; spray the liquid nutrients on foliage early in the day before it gets too hot.
- Mulch peas and cole crops – broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, and kohlrabi – to keep the soil cool; water them regularly.
- Harvest spring crops daily – this keeps them producing for as long as possible.
- As the weather warms, cool-season crops will decrease in quality. Harvest often pull the plants when finished and replace them with warm-season vegetables such as okra and sweet potatoes.
- Continue planting daisies, asters, coreopsis, marigolds, and sunflowers—they nourish the beneficial insects, which will help keep pests in check.
- Consider installing shade cloth over tomatoes to reduce stress and increase production. Even a simple shade cloth wall on the west side of the tomato row will reduce afternoon heat and moisture evaporation.
Zones 9 – 10
- If slugs and snails are dining on your plants, collect them in the evening, when you’re most likely to spot them.
- Plant pumpkins, summer squash, melons, and other vegetables that thrive in heat.
- Plant small blocks of bush beans and sweet corn every two weeks from now until late summer to extend the harvest until frost.
- Plant perennials so they can settle in before the summer heat arrives; give them plenty of water.
- Plant roselle, amaranth, and Malabar spinach now through August; make sure you give the Malabar spinach some shade and extra water.
- Use drip irrigation to provide a constant supply of moisture to beds; also mulch heavily to retain moisture and slow its loss.
- Keep heat-tolerant herbs, such as lemongrass, going strong by feeding them with fish emulsion and seaweed spray.
- Solarize empty garden beds: Cover them with clear plastic for a month or two to kill nematodes, weed seeds, and pathogens in the soil.
Zone Planting Guides
Planting charts for your Zone
Zone 3
Zone 3 is the coldest and shortest of the USDA garden zones.
Zone 4
Zone 5
Zone 6
Zone 7
Zone 8
Zone 9
Zone 10
USDA Zones vs First & Last Frost Dates
Which to Use and Why
USDA Zone Maps
These guides show the lowest average temperatures recorded in the area over the past 30 years.
They are a good basis for initial planning and comparison but should not be used as the only source of information for choosing what vegetables to grow or when to plant.
The Zone information is helpful when exchanging ideas with gardeners in different zones, as it is user-friendly.
Find your USDA hardiness zone here.
Scroll using your cursor to grab and move the map, then zoom in with the + and – buttons at the top left. Once you can see your town, city, or location, click on the map to see your Zone info in a popup window.
First & Last Frost Dates Tool
This frost dates tool provides detailed and accurate information for sowing seed, transplanting, and using frost protection to extend the growing season.
It includes historical data from numerous regional NOAA weather stations to help determine the likelihood of frost in spring and fall.
Find your First and Last frost dates here.
Enter your ZIP code and scroll down to see general information and the three closest weather stations to you.