Garden Planner
🇨🇦 Canada version
No single calendar fits every plot in Canada, because the frost-free period differs hugely from place to place. The planner covers 31 vegetables and herbs in northern-hemisphere months, shows which to sow or harvest in a chosen month, and lets you type your own last spring and first fall frost, the dates Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada maps as 30-year averages.
Use Garden Planner online
Garden Planner
What to sow and harvest this month, how many plants a bed will actually hold at proper spacing, and which combinations to keep apart. 31 vegetables and herbs.
Sow indoors1
Sow outdoors0
Too cold, or too late, to direct-sow this month.
Harvest4
Growing in CanadaJanuary: Winter
The frost-free period differs hugely across Canada. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada maps the average last spring and first fall frost.
Frost-tender plants wait until after the last spring frost date for your area.
Your frost dates
Frost dates are the single most important local fact in a vegetable garden, and they vary enormously over short distances — a valley bottom can be several weeks behind a slope a kilometre away. Look yours up once from a local source and everything else follows from them.
Canada rules and figures
- AAFC's data map the average last spring frost and first fall frost, the two dates that bound a garden's frost-free period.
- For tender plants in Canada, sowing outdoors waits until the area's last spring frost date has passed.
- Federal climate records put December in the winter that follows, so December, January and February form one Canadian winter.
Sources: AAFC: 30-year average frost-free period (0 °C) (checked 2026-11-08); Environment and Climate Change Canada: Temperature change in Canada (checked 2026-11-08)
How the Garden Planner works
The stored months suit a temperate northern climate, so Canada reads them unshifted. Frost dates, which you type, matter more here than the month, and beds are counted in centimetres.
plants per bed = ⌊bed length ÷ plant spacing⌋ × ⌊bed width ÷ row spacing⌋ (both in cm)
- The Southern hemisphere box stays unticked for Canada. The Growing in Canada card names the season for the chosen month, using Fall for September to November.
- A new session begins with one 300 × 120 cm bed of tomato and basil, giving 3 tomato and 24 basil plants.
- The example frost dates are 04-15 and 10-25. Replace them with the average last and first frost for your area, then read the growing season in days.
- Plants that need more days than your season are listed as marginal, and avoid-list pairs are flagged in a bed. Settings stay in this browser.
How to use the Garden Planner
- Pick a month. Choose the month in the Month box and leave Southern hemisphere off.
- Check the three lists. Read what to start indoors, sow outdoors and harvest, noting the snowflake on frost-tender plants.
- Replace the frost dates. Type your area's last spring frost and first fall frost as month and day. The growing season in days appears beside them.
- Count plants in a bed. Go to Beds, set the length and width in cm, pick a plant and add it to read the count.
- Search or export. Filter the plant table, or export the calendar to a CSV file.
Example: March in Canada with a short frost-free season
March reads Spring on the Growing in Canada card. The tool lists 15 plants to sow indoors, among them tomato, pepper or chilli, aubergine and cucumber, 11 to sow outdoors and nothing to harvest, so the harvest box shows the hungry gap message. Typing 05-25 and 09-10 as frost dates gives a 108-day season and flags only pumpkin or squash, which needs 110 days.
When to use the Garden Planner
- Starting seeds under cover. Set March to see the long indoor list before the last frost date arrives.
- Judging a short season. Enter a late last frost and an early first frost to see which crops need more days than you have.
- Sizing a raised bed. Type 240 × 90 cm and compare capacity for potato, kale and lettuce.
- Planning a fall harvest. Pick October to see what is ready, such as carrot, beetroot and cabbage.
What the Garden Planner does not do
- A single national calendar cannot match every climate. Look up your own average frost dates and use them to time sowing.
- Frost dates feed the season length and warnings only. They do not move the sowing months.
- The 31 plants and their spacings are fixed, and you cannot add your own.
- Beds and settings are saved in this browser and do not sync between devices.
When something else is a better fit
- When you want average frost dates for your area, use the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada frost-free period data.
- When you want a to-do list for the house and car, use the Seasonal Checklist.
- When you want to convert bed sizes or soil volumes, use the Unit Converter.
Questions about the Garden Planner
Which frost dates should a Canadian gardener use?
Dates for your own area. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada maps the average last spring and first fall frost, and the planner starts with placeholders of 04-15 and 10-25.
Does the planner use metric beds in Canada?
Yes. Bed lengths and widths are in centimetres by default, and the Bed units box switches to inches if you measure that way.
Why does it list pumpkin as marginal with a 108-day season?
Pumpkin or squash needs 110 days to harvest, and a frost-tender plant is flagged when its days exceed your season. At 108 days it falls two days short.
Why is the Southern hemisphere switch off?
Canada is in the north, so the stored months apply directly. Switching on moves each month by six, which suits only a southern garden.
Are my beds saved?
Yes, in this browser's local storage. They return when you reopen the page on the same device.