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Two dates run your whole year: the last frost of spring and the first frost of fall. Everything plant tells you to plant is counted from them. Find your zone below and see your season, wherever you grow.
These are representative midpoints for each zone. Frost timing varies widely within a single zone, since zones track winter cold, not frost dates, so treat your dates as a starting point and adjust for your own region and elevation. For a local average, check your county Cooperative Extension.
About 120 frost-free days, one of the shortest seasons in the country. Start tomatoes and peppers indoors six to eight weeks early, lean on short-season varieties, and use row cover to steal a few weeks at each end.Roughly 120 frost-free days, and remember that the published date is a 50% probability median, not a guarantee, so plan to the 10% risk date or hedge with protection. Match cultivars to the window by days-to-maturity with a two-week buffer, schedule transplants by accumulated growing degree days rather than the calendar, and bracket both shoulders with low tunnels or floating row cover (good for roughly 2 to 4°F). Watch cold-air drainage: a low spot can run a full zone colder than the open slope above it.
About 140 frost-free days, a short season with a real summer in the middle. Start the heat-lovers indoors, and a single well-timed planting of quick crops can still fit before the October frost.About 140 frost-free days. Direct-sow warm-season crops only once soil holds above 60°F at two inches, not on a calendar date, and set Solanaceae out after the 10% frost-risk date. There is room for one fall succession of fast brassicas or greens if you back-count days-to-maturity plus a harvest buffer from the first-fall median. Row cover buys a couple of degrees at each end.
About 180 frost-free days. A solid season: most crops finish comfortably, and cool-weather greens get both a spring and a fall window.About 180 frost-free days, enough for nearly all warm-season crops to mature unprotected. Work the spring and fall shoulders with cool-season successions and time direct sowing by soil temperature (peas and spinach from about 40°F, beans and squash from 60°F). The first-fall median is your planning anchor; a low tunnel pushes hardy-greens harvest well past it.
About 210 frost-free days, a long and forgiving season. There is room for spring and fall plantings of nearly everything, with a relaxed margin around both frosts.About 210 frost-free days, a wide window with comfortable margin on both shoulders. Stack successions through the season and use the fall shoulder for a full second planting of brassicas and roots, counting back days-to-maturity plus the autumn slowdown from the first-frost median. Overwintering hardy crops under cover becomes realistic at this length.
About 245 frost-free days. A generous season: you can stack successions through summer and still land a full fall planting before the mid-November frost.About 245 frost-free days, where the binding constraint starts shifting from frost to midsummer heat. Cool-season crops bracket the year in spring and fall while heat-sensitive crops (lettuce, cilantro, spinach) bolt through July and August. Plan continuous successions, exploit the long fall shoulder for a substantial second season, and consider overwintering alliums and hardy greens under low tunnels.
About 290 frost-free days, running February to December. Spring comes early and fall lingers, but summer can get hot enough to pause heat-sensitive crops mid-season.About 290 frost-free days, February to December, and effectively a two-peak system. Spring and fall are the productive windows; high summer is a heat-imposed pause for cool-season and many fruiting crops, since tomato fruit set falls off above roughly 90°F days and 75°F nights. Schedule around the heat rather than the frost, and overwinter cool-season crops with minimal protection.
About 320 frost-free days, and frost is already a minor event. The real challenge here is summer heat: tender crops want spring and fall, and many greens grow best through the mild winter. Your exact dates depend on your region as much as your zone.About 320 frost-free days; frost is an episodic, marginal risk rather than a season boundary. Heat governs: time fruiting crops to set before the heat-set failure window, run cool-season crops through the mild winter, and treat the calendar as region-specific, since interior valley, coast, and low desert diverge sharply at the same zone. For perennials, winter chill-hour accumulation becomes the limiting variable, not cold damage.
Effectively frost-free, a full 365 growing days. Cold is rarely the limit; summer heat is. The prime windows run fall through spring, and how it plays out depends heavily on your region, whether you are on the coast, inland, or in the desert.Effectively frost-free. Cold is a non-factor; the binding constraints are summer heat, solar intensity, and, for perennials, insufficient winter chill. Fall through spring is the high-production window; summer favors heat-adapted crops (okra, sweet potato, southern peas) plus shade management. Region dominates: marine-cooled coast, hot interior, and low desert behave like different climates at the same zone number.
No meaningful frost at all. You grow year-round, so the work shifts entirely to managing heat, sun, and water through intense summers. Tropical and subtropical regions each handle this differently, which is why plant resolves your calendar by region, not just by zone.No meaningful frost; the calendar is governed by heat, wet and dry seasonality, and day length rather than cold. Temperate annuals run as cool-season crops in the coolest months, and the rest of the year favors tropical and heat-adapted species. Chill-dependent perennials are off the table without low-chill cultivars. Timing is inherently regional, tropical Hawaii versus subtropical south Florida, so plant resolves it by region.
Your frost dates give you the season. Soil temperature tells you the actual day to plant inside it, which is the more reliable signal once spring arrives.
See soil temperature →Your last spring frost and your first fall frost. Everything you plant is timed from these two dates: tender crops go in after the last spring frost and are harvested before the first fall frost. The days between them are your frost-free growing window.
In zone 7 the last spring frost falls around Mar 15 and the first fall frost around Nov 15, giving roughly 245 frost-free days. These are representative midpoints; your local date can vary by weeks depending on region and elevation.
Approximate frost-free days by zone: zone 3 about 120, zone 4 about 140, zone 5 about 180, zone 6 about 210, zone 7 about 245, zone 8 about 290, zone 9 about 320, and zones 10 and 11 effectively 365. Higher zones are limited by summer heat rather than frost.
Not meaningfully. Zones 10 and 11 grow year-round, so the limiting factor is summer heat, sun, and water rather than cold. Prime planting windows run fall through spring, and the specifics depend heavily on whether you are coastal, inland, or desert.
Frost dates on this page are drawn from land-grant university Cooperative Extension services, the public agricultural research arm of US state universities, cited per zone.
Sources are graded by reliability. Tier 1 is primary research from a land-grant university Cooperative Extension.
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