What vegetables can I plant early in spring?

The earliest spring vegetables are hardy cool-season crops that tolerate frost and germinate in cold soil. As soon as the ground can be worked and reaches about 40°F, you can sow peas, spinach, radishes, arugula and mustard greens, and set out onion sets and potato pieces. These go in 4 to 6 weeks before your last frost. Slightly later, as soil hits 45°F, add carrots, beets, lettuce, chard and transplants of broccoli and cabbage. All of these shrug off the light frosts common in early spring.

When can I plant tomatoes and peppers in spring?

Not until after your last frost, once the soil has warmed to at least 60°F — usually 1 to 3 weeks past the frost date rather than on it. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, squash and beans are all frost-tender and stall or die in cold soil. Start tomatoes indoors 6 to 8 weeks before last frost and peppers 8 to 10 weeks before, then transplant after the danger passes. Rushing them into cold spring soil causes chilling injury and slow, disease-prone growth, so patience for warm soil pays off.

What is the difference between early and late spring planting?

Early spring is for cool-season crops that handle frost — peas, spinach, radishes, onions, potatoes and hardy greens sown weeks before the last frost. Late spring, after the frost has passed and soil has warmed, is for warm-season crops like tomatoes, peppers, beans, corn, cucumbers and squash. Think of spring as two planting waves: a cold-tolerant wave going in while frost still threatens, and a heat-loving wave going in once the weather settles. Many beds host both in succession as the season warms.

Can I direct sow seeds in spring or should I transplant?

Both, depending on the crop. Direct sow crops that grow fast or resent transplanting: peas, beans, radishes, carrots, beets, corn, cucumbers and squash go straight into the ground. Transplant long-season or slow-starting crops that benefit from an indoor head start: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, cabbage and onions are usually set out as young plants. Direct sowing is simpler and avoids transplant shock; transplanting buys weeks of growing time in cold zones where the season is short.

What can I plant in early spring in a cold climate?

In cold zones 3 to 5, early spring outdoor planting is limited to the hardiest crops once the snow clears and soil thaws — peas, spinach, radishes, onion sets and potatoes go in first, often in April to May. Everything warm-season waits until late May or June. The real early-spring work in cold climates happens indoors: start tomatoes, peppers, brassicas and onions under lights so stocky transplants are ready the moment the soil warms. Season-extension covers let hardy greens go out a couple of weeks sooner.

What to Plant in Spring: Zone-by-Zone Vegetable Sowing Guide

Written & researched by Elena Marsh Gardening & Landscaping Editor

Updated June 2026

Three-quarter view of a person harvesting ripe tomatoes into a basket in a backyard vegetable garden, in warm late-afternoon light

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What to plant in spring falls into two waves: hardy cool-season crops — peas, spinach, radishes, onions, potatoes and lettuce — sown weeks before the last frost, then warm-season crops like tomatoes, peppers, beans and squash set out after it once the soil reaches 60°F. The exact dates depend on your USDA zone and your last frost, so this guide gives zone-by-zone timing, soil temperatures in °F, and days to maturity to match each crop to the right week for your climate.

We do not test or physically handle the plants and products we cover; our guidance draws on horticultural extension research and the aggregated experience in thousands of owner reviews, as explained in how we rank.

Spring is two planting waves, not one

The single most useful thing to understand about spring is that it holds two distinct planting windows. The first wave is cool-season crops that tolerate frost and germinate in cold soil — they go in weeks before the last frost while it is still chilly. The second wave is warm-season crops that frost kills, set out only after the last frost and once the soil has warmed.

Mixing these up is the classic spring mistake: tomatoes rushed into cold April soil sulk while peas sown "too early" thrive. Match each crop to its wave and the season looks after itself. The categories are detailed in cool season vegetables and warm season vegetables.

The gap between the two waves is usually four to eight weeks, and it is dictated entirely by your last frost date. In a zone where the last frost lands in mid-April, the first wave might go in during March and the second in mid-May, with the cool crops maturing just as the warm crops need their beds. This natural sequence is one reason spring is the most productive planting season of the year — the same ground can carry a fast cool-season crop and then a warm-season crop in a single spring, provided you plan the hand-off. Gardeners who treat spring as a single planting day, sowing everything at once on a mild afternoon, lose both the early window for cold-lovers and the safety margin for heat-lovers.

Low-angle view of a person harvesting ripe tomatoes into a basket in a backyard vegetable garden, in soft early-morning light

Wave one: early spring cool-season sowings

As soon as the ground can be worked and soil reaches about 40 to 45°F, sow the hardy crops. These go in 4 to 6 weeks before your last frost.

Crop	Soil temp to sow	Days to maturity
Peas	40°F	55 to 70
Spinach	40°F	40 to 50
Radishes	40°F	25 to 30
Onion sets	40°F	90 to 110
Potatoes	45°F	70 to 100
Lettuce, carrots, beets	45°F	30 to 70

Wave two: warm-season crops after last frost

Once the last frost has passed and soil holds above 60°F, the heat-lovers go in — usually 1 to 3 weeks after the frost date.

Crop	Soil temp to plant	Method
Beans	60°F	Direct sow
Cucumbers, squash	65°F	Direct sow or transplant
Sweet corn	60 to 65°F	Direct sow
Tomatoes	60°F	Transplant
Peppers, eggplant	65°F	Transplant

Overhead view of a person harvesting ripe tomatoes into a basket in a backyard vegetable garden, in warm late-afternoon light

What to start indoors in early spring

In cold zones the important spring work happens under lights weeks before anything goes outside. Count back from your last frost.

8 to 10 weeks before last frost — peppers and eggplant.
6 to 8 weeks before — tomatoes.
4 to 6 weeks before — broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower.
10 to 12 weeks before — onions and leeks from seed.

Harden off every transplant over 7 to 10 days before setting it out so it is not shocked by sun and wind. Start with an hour of dappled shade outdoors, then lengthen the exposure and add direct sun a little each day, bringing plants back in on cold nights. A seedling raised under lights has soft tissue and no wind conditioning, so moving it straight into the open garden often scorches its leaves or snaps the stem. This week of conditioning is easy to skip in the excitement of planting out, but it is what turns a pampered indoor plant into one that stands up to real spring weather.

Zone-by-zone spring planting windows

USDA zone	Cool-season sowing	Warm-season planting
3 to 4	Apr to early May	Late May to June
5 to 6	Mar to Apr	Mid to late May
7	Feb to Mar	Late Apr to early May
8	Jan to Feb	Late Mar to April
9 to 10	Fall to winter is prime; finish by Feb	Feb to March

In warm zones, spring is short — cool-season crops must finish before the heat, and warm crops go in early to beat high-summer stress. In the far south (zones 9 and 10), what northern gardeners think of as spring effectively happens in late winter: cool-season crops are wrapping up by March, and tomatoes and peppers often need to be in the ground by early spring so they set fruit before summer heat causes blossom drop. In cold zones (3 and 4), the reverse is true — the whole spring is compressed into a few frantic weeks in May and June, which is why starting long-season crops indoors is not optional but essential to getting a harvest at all. Reading a national planting chart through the lens of your own last frost date is what turns these generic month ranges into dates you can act on.

Wide view of a person harvesting ripe tomatoes into a basket in a backyard vegetable garden, in warm late-afternoon light

Keeping spring beds producing

Spring is the time to start succession sowing. Re-sow fast crops like lettuce, radishes, spinach and peas every 2 to 3 weeks so the harvest comes steadily rather than all at once, and so a bed is never idle. As cool-season crops finish and the weather warms, their beds are ready to receive the second wave of warm-season transplants, giving two harvests from the same ground. This overlap is the engine of a productive garden.

Spring planting tips

Work with soil temperature — a thermometer beats the calendar in a cold or early spring.
Sow hardy crops first — peas, spinach and radishes can go in weeks before the frost date.
Wait for warm soil for the heat-lovers — patience beats an early, chilled planting.
Keep frost cover handy — a late frost can still hit after the average last-frost date.
Reuse the bed — follow a finished cool crop with a warm one for two harvests.

What to Plant in Spring