If you've ever planted something because the calendar said so and then watched it struggle, stall, or get wiped out by a late frost, you're not alone.
One of the most common questions gardeners ask is simple on the surface: when should I plant?
And frustratingly vague once you start digging into the answers.
Some charts say March. Others say April. A book says "after the last frost", but doesn't say whose last frost. Before long, you're either planting too early and hoping for the best, or planting late and wondering what went wrong.
That confusion is exactly why When to Plant exists.
Why "when to plant" is such a tricky question
Most gardening advice relies on broad regions, zones, or average dates. The problem?
Those averages don't reflect where you actually garden.
In the UK alone, planting conditions can vary wildly:
Cornwall can be weeks ahead of northern Scotland
Coastal gardens behave very differently to inland ones
Even neighbouring towns can have different frost patterns
A "UK planting calendar" might be technically correct, but still wrong for you.
And frost dates matter more than most people realise. A single cold night can undo weeks of careful growing, especially for young plants started early with the best intentions.
What really determines planting dates
When it comes down to it, most planting decisions hinge on a few key things:
1. Your local frost dates
Not just whether frost can happen, but when it usually stops in spring and returns in autumn.
2. How the plant is grown
Some plants:
Start best indoors, then move outside
Can be sown directly into the ground
Need warmth before they'll do anything at all
That means the same plant can have multiple "right" planting windows.
3. A bit of flexibility
Gardening doesn't run on exact dates. Weather shifts, life gets busy, and plants don't read instructions. That's why date ranges are far more useful than a single "perfect" day.
Why generic planting calendars fall down
Most calendars assume:
One climate
One method
One schedule
Real gardens don't work like that.
If a chart says "sow tomatoes in March", does that mean:
Indoors or outside?
In London or Inverness?
Early March or late March?
Those missing details are where things usually go wrong.
A better way to know when to plant
When to Plant takes a different approach.
Instead of starting with a fixed calendar, it starts with your location.
From there, it:
Looks at typical frost patterns for your area
Works backwards and forwards based on what each plant needs
Shows you time windows, not rigid dates
Adjusts everything automatically if you change location
So the dates you see are relevant to your garden - not a generic average.
What you'll find on When to Plant
If you're just browsing, you can:
Look up plants and see when to sow, transplant, and harvest
Change location and instantly see how dates shift
Get a quick sense of what's plantable right now
If you want to go a bit further, you can:
Add plants you're growing to a garden
Follow step-by-step growing guides
Tick things off as you go
Keep notes for next year (because future-you will forget)
But none of it is mandatory. You can use as much or as little as you like.
An example: why location changes everything
Take tomatoes, a classic example.
In one part of the UK, you might safely start seeds indoors in early March.
In another, late March or early April makes far more sense.
Transplanting outside? That could be late April somewhere mild, or not until early June somewhere colder.
Same plant. Same country. Completely different timings.
That's why seeing dates that are tied to your location makes such a difference.
Gardening isn't about being perfect
One thing we're very clear about: there is no perfect schedule.
Plants don't care if you're a week late. They care about temperature, light, and being treated reasonably well. When you're early or late, the system adjusts - because that's how real gardening works.
When to Plant is there to give you a solid reference point, not to tell you off.
Where to start
If you're not sure what to do first, keep it simple:
Set your location
Pick a plant you're thinking of growing
Look at the date ranges and see what makes sense right now
You don't need an account to do that. Just explore and see if it helps.
One last thing
Gardening advice should make things clearer, not more stressful.
If you've ever felt like you were "doing it wrong" because a chart said so - you weren't. You were probably just gardening somewhere different to whoever wrote it.
That's what we're trying to fix.
Have a look around, change your location, and see how the dates change.
Chances are, it'll feel a lot more familiar.
Know a gardener who'd find this useful?
Last updated 25 Aug 2026