October is Iowa’s garlic-planting window and its last full harvest push before frost, not the start of a new growing season.

By November, Iowa’s ground is working against a gardener, not for one. The first fall freeze has already swept across the state somewhere between October…

Iowa’s planting calendar turns on soil temperature, not the calendar page. Statewide frost data puts the last spring freeze between April 12 and April 24…

Direct-sow peas, spinach, and onion sets only once the soil can be worked, not by the calendar. Garlic and shallots still go in where ground isn’t frozen.

By June, Iowa’s growing season is wide open. The state’s last spring frost window, April 12 to April 24, is long past, and soil has warmed enough for…

July in Iowa sits well past the last spring frost and well ahead of the first fall one, so the answer is straightforward: keep the summer garden…

Nothing goes into open ground in Iowa in January. Soil across the state is frozen solid, often to a depth of a foot or more, and the last spring frost…

February gives Iowa gardeners almost nothing to plant outdoors. The state spans USDA Hardiness Zones 4b to 6a, and most counties carry frozen or…

The direct answer: in December, Iowa’s ground is frozen solid across nearly the whole state, and nothing gets planted outdoors.

Iowa’s August garden runs on two clocks at once: fast-maturing crops still going into open ground before the first week or two closes out, and…