Zone 7 Planting Schedule – What to Plant Each Month

Feeling organized is one of the core secrets of life if you hope to be productive. You may sow seeds helter-skelter, but that doesn’t mean a gardener can completely ignore organization. In fact, a planting calendar can help you remember what to plant when in the USDA planting zone in which you live.

If you live in USDA zone 7, you’ll probably be planting gardens in Zone 7. That means that a planting calendar for zone 7 will come in handy, setting out a short list of seeds you might be starting indoors and those you can start outdoors in every month.

We’ve done the work for you so count on being organized in the garden this year.

Welcome to Zone 7

Before we leap into a Hardiness Zone 7 planting schedule, let’s outline the climate in this zone. Some like it hot; some like it cold. If your preference is somewhere in between, Zone 7 might be perfect for you. It has a largely temperate climate with a fairly long growing season.

Remember that USDA Hardiness Zones are determined by the average low temperature in the area. In Zone 7, the average minimum winter temperature ranges from 0 to 10 degrees F. The lowest temperatures will be colder - and sometimes far colder - than these average temperatures. And the high temperatures are not taken into account at all in the hardiness zone regions.

The hardiness zones are not determined state by state. That is, one state may have many different hardiness zones. Some 33 of the 50 states have a region that is in Zone 7, but only one state - Delaware - is totally in Zone 7.

Given that the other 32 states range from Alaska to South Carolina, it’s easy to see that the summer temperatures in the Zone 7 states will vary enormously. Keep this in mind when you decide what to plant in your own garden. Not every one of the plants listed in this Zone 7 planting guide can be grown in every one of the 33 states in the Zone 7 belt.

Planting Calendar Zone 7

Follow along each month to see what plants you should be planting.

January

In January, winter is well under way in Zone 7 and you can’t plant anything in the garden. How about indoors? Nothing indoors either. (However, January is a good time to prune certain plants outdoors.)

February

February is still too cold for outdoor planting. But, in the last half of the month, you can start seeds indoors. Plants to start indoors in February include:

March

Now we gardeners have something to talk about. Many seeds can be started indoors in March, and a few can actually be sown or transplanted into the garden.

April

By April 15, all chance of a late frost is behind you in Zone 7. It’s a terrific gardening month in this temperate zone, so if you haven’t started yet, dig in.

May

It’s May, it’s May, the merry month of May. This is beautiful weather in Zone 7, a great time for planting and some vegetables will be ready to harvest.

June

June is almost summer, with hotter weather. Now’s the time to plant heat-loving, warm season veggies and keeping an eye out for pests. You can also succession plant some cool-season vegetable favorites like beets for fall harvest.

July

By the time July arrives, summer has arrived in Zone 7. It’s time for warm season crops and don’t forget to water!

August

August is usually the hottest month in Zone 7. This is the month for barbeques and picnics and you can just keep on planting. You can even start seeds indoors now for autumn planting.

September

The kids are getting ready to start school and the weather is cooling. Leaves might be starting to turn and there’s a distinct feel of autumn in the air in Zone 7. It’s getting too late to start seeds indoors, so spend these fall days outdoors in the garden.

October

You may see the first autumn frost in mid-October, so it’s not the month for planting. Spend your garden time tending your crops and harvesting. It’s also a great time to start garden clean-up to get things ready for winter.

November

Enjoy Thanksgiving and prepare yourself and your garden for winter and the cold weather.

December

Happy holidays. You might start planning your garden for the coming year, leaning on the lessons that you’ve learned to make things easier and the harvest more generous.

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