Planting Calendar: An Interactive Guide to Sowing and Harvesting Throughout the Year

Knowing when to sow is one of the most critical skills in growing. Sow too early and seedlings will be leggy or frost-damaged; sow too late and crops may not mature before the season ends. The Planting Calendar provides an interactive 12-month overview of sowing, transplanting, and harvesting windows for the most commonly grown vegetables, herbs, and fruit in the UK.

The calendar displays monthly activity windows colour-coded by type: indoor sowing (protected), direct outdoor sowing, transplanting, and harvesting. Each crop can be selected to see its full season at a glance. Crops are grouped by category — roots, brassicas, legumes, alliums, salads, and fruiting vegetables — making it easy to plan rotation.

The calendar is anchored to UK growing conditions with guidance appropriate for central England. Growers in the north should push dates back by two to three weeks; those in the south-west may be able to extend the season at both ends.

Sowing and harvesting windows are based on RHS Grow Your Own guides, Royal Horticultural Society calendar data, and information from the National Vegetable Society. Frost dates use central England averages as a baseline, with last frost assumed at mid-April and first autumn frost at end of October.

Navigate through the months using the calendar controls. Click on any crop to highlight its full sowing-to-harvest lifecycle. Use the filter controls to view only crops that have activity in the current month, or to focus on a particular category. The calendar is best used as an at-a-glance planning reference alongside a dedicated seed packet guide for your specific variety.