Climate-aware garden planning with a focus on cold and short-seasons

Plan Your Garden by Date, Not Guesswork

Practical planning tools that use frost dates and growing degree days to help you decide what can mature, when to start seeds, and whether you still have time to plant.

Built for gardeners where short seasons, cool summers, and early fall frost can change what is realistically possible.

Built on more than generic zone advice

Use local frost, heat, crop, and planting data

We cover city-level planting pages, crop timing checks, frost references, growing degree day data, variety notes, and practical product guides for short-season gardeners.

7,480 climate stations in the frost and heat dataset
35 province and state planting indexes
428 city planting pages with local frost and GDD context
10272 local crop guides
156 crop variety types
26 vegetable crops tracked across planning tools

Pick the tool that fits your season

Four planning tools, one job: better timing decisions

Each tool answers a different planning question, whether you are starting seeds, checking frost dates, or seeing if a crop can still finish before fall.

Main maturity checker

Growing Degree Day Planner

The main garden planning tool for checking what can realistically mature in your season.

Compare crop heat requirements against your local growing season so you can tell whether a variety is realistically finishable before frost.

See what will mature in your area

Spring timing

Spring Seed Starting Calculator

Find the right indoor seed-starting dates based on your local last frost date.

Use it when you want a practical spring planting schedule instead of guessing from a generic calendar.

Find out when to start seeds indoors

Late-season decisions

Fall Planting Calculator

Check whether you still have time to plant a crop before your season runs out.

Work backward from your first fall frost to estimate the latest safer planting window for fast crops and succession planting.

Check if it is too late to plant

Local season anchors

Frost Date Calculator

Look up the frost boundaries that shape your local growing season.

Find your typical last spring frost and first fall frost — the basic planning anchors behind the rest of the site.

Find frost dates from your local area code

Our best practical buying guides

Gear guides for the problems short-season gardeners actually face

These guides support the planning tools with the supplies that matter most when your season is short: light, warmth, airflow, protection, and accurate temperature checks.

Seed starting gear

Best Seed Starting Trays

Choose sturdy trays, cells, and humidity domes that fit your seed-starting setup without wasting space.

Read the guide →

Seed starting soil

Best Seed Starting Mix

Pick a mix that supports even germination, moisture control, and healthy early roots.

Read the guide →

Seed starting heat

Best Heat Mats for Seedlings

Choose the right heat mat for peppers, tomatoes, and indoor seed starting without overheating trays or drying them too fast.

Read the guide →

Seed starting light

Best Grow Lights for Seedlings

Choose lights that keep starts compact and strong before outdoor conditions are ready.

Read the guide →

Indoor airflow

Best Fan for Seedlings Indoors

Improve airflow around seed trays and reduce weak, crowded, overly damp starts.

Read the guide →

Cool soil decisions

Best Soil Thermometer for Gardening

Stop guessing whether the bed is warm enough for direct sowing and transplanting.

Read the guide →

Plant protection

Best Frost Cloth by Temperature Rating

Match row cover and frost cloth to the freeze risk you are actually trying to manage.

Read the guide →

Tomato support

Best Tomato Cages

Compare tomato cage styles for determinate and indeterminate plants, raised beds, windy gardens, and heavy-producing varieties.

Read the guide →

Fungus gnat control

Best Beneficial Nematodes for Fungus Gnats

Break the breeding cycle by targeting larvae in moist seed trays, houseplants, and potting mix.

Read the guide →

Planting dates by region

Start with your state, province, or city

Browse local planting date pages built around frost dates, frost-free days, and growing degree day context instead of broad zone-only advice.

U.S.

Planting Dates by State

Find state-level planting indexes and city pages for local frost timing and crop planning.

Browse U.S. States
Canada

Planting Dates by Province

Browse Canadian province pages with city-level frost dates, growing season notes, and crop timing links.

Browse Canadian Provinces

Why it works

Better than a generic planting calendar

Most gardening advice assumes a longer, more forgiving season than many gardeners actually have.

GrowByDate is built around two measurable constraints: frost timing and heat accumulation. Frost tells you when your season usually begins and ends. Growing degree days (GDD) help estimate whether a crop has enough accumulated warmth to mature inside that window.

This matters most in short-season climates, where “days to maturity” on its own can be misleading. A crop may fit on paper, but still struggle if the season does not deliver enough heat.

The goal is not perfect prediction. It is building a plan with better odds — one that matches your actual season instead of a generic average.