Zone 8 Planting Calendar (8a & 8b): Printable, by Month

Zone 8 is conventionally taken to average its last spring frost around March 20 and its first fall frost around November 15, giving roughly 240 frost-free days. Be aware that a hardiness zone is defined by winter minimum temperature, not by frost dates — these are widely-used approximations, not official USDA figures. Get your real dates from the NOAA freeze-date map or your county cooperative extension office.

Use the month-by-month table on this page. The pattern is: frost-tolerant crops like peas, spinach and radishes go in 6 to 2 weeks before March 20; warm-season crops like beans, zucchini and tomatoes go in 1 to 3 weeks after it; and cool-season crops get a second sowing about 10 to 12 weeks before November 15.

Yes. In zone 8, start tomato seed indoors 6 to 8 weeks before March 20 or buy a seedling, then transplant 1 to 2 weeks after the last frost once nights stay above 50°F. With 240 frost-free days there is comfortable room for any variety, including large beefsteak types.

Two to three rounds a year, with the cool-season crops moved to autumn and late winter rather than midsummer, when heat rather than frost becomes the limiting factor.

Yes, in spring. A raised bed warms 2 to 3 weeks earlier than open ground, so you can bring the early sowings forward by up to two weeks. Autumn dates are unchanged, since the first frost arrives on the same day regardless of your setup.

Five degrees in the average coldest night of the year. Zone 8a averages 10 to 15°F at its coldest and zone 8b 15 to 20°F. The letter matters for perennials on the edge of winter hardiness. It does not change vegetable planting dates, which follow your frost dates — the calendar on this page applies to both halves.

Neither — the letter does not decide it. 8a and 8b differ only in how cold the coldest winter night gets, and tomatoes grow in summer, long after that night has passed. What matters is the length of your frost-free season. Within zone 8, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (8b) averages 262 frost-free days and Eugene, OR (8b) only 196. Check the city table on this page, or enter your own frost dates in the calendar.

In zone 8, July plantings are: sow for a fall crop — carrot; re-sow every 14 days — bush beans, carrot, kale, lettuce (leaf), radish and spinach. The July table gives the exact window for each. Cool-season sowings in July may bolt in the heat.

Sowings for a fall harvest in zone 8 start around July 30 with carrot and run to about October 2 with radish. Each date is counted back from the average first frost (November 15) by the crop's days to harvest plus two weeks, so a crop sown on time matures before the cold arrives.

Not as a download yet. The chart and the month-by-month tables on this page print cleanly — use your browser's Print command and the menus, ads and questions are left off the page. A downloadable version is on the way.