Zone 5 Planting Calendar: What to Plant and When

A Zone 5 garden gets roughly 150 to 170 days between the last spring frost and the first hard freeze of fall, and winter lows sit between -20 and -10F. That is a middle-of-the-road season by American standards: long enough to ripen tomatoes, peppers, and melons outdoors, short enough that the warm-season crops have to be started under lights indoors well before the ground is workable. Below is a month-by-month Zone 5 planting calendar covering what to sow, what to set out, and what should be coming out of the beds, from the first seed trays in January to the last hardy greens in November.

Zone 5 planting calendar

Use this month-by-month Zone 5 planting schedule as your season map. It shows when to start seeds indoors, when to move transplants outside, what you can direct sow, and what should be ready to harvest. Dates shift with the weather each year, so pair it with your local last and first frost dates from the ZIP code planting calendar.

Zone 5 planting schedule at a glance

The Zone 5 planting schedule runs on the same loop every year. Onions, leeks, and celery go under lights in January, and in Zone 5 you start seeds indoors for tomatoes and peppers about 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost, which usually puts them in trays in March. Tender transplants only go out after that last frost has passed, late April in the milder 5b half and as late as mid May in 5a, while hardy crops like peas, spinach, and radish are direct sown weeks earlier. The main harvest runs from June through September, and late summer is when you sow again for fall greens and roots, with garlic going in the ground in autumn.

A dash means there is little to plant or harvest that month in Zone 5. Cold months are for planning, ordering seed, and starting the earliest crops indoors under lights.

The best crops for Zone 5

Zone 5's roomy season means you can grow almost anything, but a handful of dependable, easy crops belong in every Zone 5 garden. Lean on these for cool-season spring and fall plantings, then add heat lovers for summer:

Vegetables

• Leafy greens and lettuce. Lettuce, spinach, and kale grow fast and take a light frost in stride, which is what makes them the backbone of both the spring and the fall beds here. Browse lettuce seeds, spinach seeds, and kale seeds.
• Root crops. Carrots, beets, and radishes mature quickly and store well. See carrot seeds, beet seeds, and radish seeds.
• Peas and beans. Peas want the cool shoulder seasons, and bush beans give a fast summer crop once the soil warms. Try pea seeds and bean seeds.
• Brassicas. Broccoli, cabbage, and their cousins do their best work in the cool weather at either end of the Zone 5 season. Explore broccoli seeds and cabbage seeds.
• Warm-season crops. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and summer squash all have time to ripen in a Zone 5 summer, provided you start seeds indoors early enough to set out sturdy transplants. See tomato seeds and pepper seeds.

Herbs and flowers

Hardy herbs like chives, dill, parsley, and cilantro do well in Zone 5, and cold-tolerant flowers such as calendula, nasturtium, and sunflowers add color and pull in pollinators. Start with our herb seeds, and for the full range see all of our vegetable seeds.

When are the frost dates in Zone 5?

Your last spring frost is the average date of the final freeze before summer, and your first fall frost is the average date of the first freeze after it. In Zone 5 the last frost typically falls around late April to mid May and the first fall frost around early to mid October, leaving a growing season of about 150 to 170 days. Those two dates drive everything: you start most warm-season seeds indoors weeks before the last frost, plant tender crops out only after it, and count backward from the first fall frost to know how late you can sow.

These are averages for the whole zone, and your yard can run a week or two earlier or later. For the exact last and first frost dates at your location, enter your ZIP code in our interactive planting calendar and plan your Zone 5 garden around your real local dates.

Zone 5a vs 5b: last and first frost dates

Zone 5 is split into two halves, 5a and 5b, and they sit about 5F apart in average winter low. That gap shows up in the calendar as well as on the map. 5b is the milder half: its last frost clears earlier in spring and its first frost holds off longer in fall, which adds up to roughly two or three more weeks of growing season than 5a gets. If you garden in 5a, read the monthly table above and run everything about a week to two weeks later.

Both columns below are averages across a wide band of the country, and a single yard can sit well outside them. Elevation, a nearby lake, a south-facing slope, or a sheltered city lot can shift your real frost dates by two weeks in either direction. Use the table as the frame, then count back from your own last frost date when you start seeds indoors rather than from the zone-wide average, and keep notes each year, because your own records beat any published number.

What does USDA Zone 5 mean?

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones are based on the average annual coldest winter temperature. Zone 5 means your average extreme winter low lands between -20 to -10F. That number tells you which perennials, shrubs, and trees can survive the winter in the ground, so it is a measure of winter hardiness, not frost dates or season length. When a plant is labeled hardy to Zone 5, it means the plant can normally live through a Zone 5 winter. For annual vegetables you plant fresh each spring, your frost dates and season length matter more than the hardiness number, which is why this calendar leans on both.

Not sure this is your zone? If your winters are colder, see our Zone 4 planting calendar. If they are milder, check the Zone 6 planting calendar. And for your exact dates, always confirm with the ZIP code planting calendar.