Grow your own: a vegetable planting calendar for the North East
What to sow, plant and harvest each month in a North East garden or allotment. Our springs come later and our frosts can linger, so treat these as a guide and let the weather and your soil have the final say.
Month by month
"Under cover" means a greenhouse, cold frame or sunny windowsill. Tender crops such as courgettes, squash, beans, sweetcorn and outdoor tomatoes can't take frost, and frost can come late in the North East, often into May inland and on higher ground, so hold them back until it has passed. Our North East frost date finder gives the typical last spring frost for your postcode.
| Month | Sow under cover | Sow or plant outside | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Onions from seed | Garlic, if the ground isn't frozen | Leeks, parsnips, kale, Brussels sprouts, winter cabbage |
| February | Onions, leeks; tomatoes and peppers with heat | Shallots and garlic | Leeks, parsnips, kale, Brussels sprouts |
| March | Tomatoes, peppers, celery, lettuce, summer cabbage and cauliflower | Broad beans, peas, radish under cloches, onion sets; first early potatoes late in the month | Leeks, purple sprouting broccoli |
| April | Courgettes, squash, sweetcorn and cucumbers; runner and French beans in pots late in the month | Beetroot, carrots, chard, lettuce, spinach, peas, parsnips; second early and maincrop potatoes | Purple sprouting broccoli, rhubarb, spring cabbage |
| May | Last tender crops | Beetroot, carrots, lettuce; tender crops planted out once frosts have passed | Radish, lettuce, rhubarb, asparagus |
| June | Nothing essential | Runner and French beans, beetroot, carrots, lettuce; plant out leeks and winter brassicas | Early potatoes, broad beans, peas, lettuce, strawberries |
| July | Nothing essential | Carrots, beetroot, lettuce, chard; spring cabbage late in the month | Courgettes, beans, potatoes, beetroot, soft fruit |
| August | Nothing essential | Spring cabbage, winter salads, green manure on empty beds | Tomatoes, sweetcorn, runner beans, maincrop potatoes |
| September | Nothing essential | Overwintering onion sets, spring cabbage plants | Maincrop potatoes, squash, apples, early leeks |
| October | Nothing essential | Garlic, overwintering onions, hardy broad beans | Squash, carrots, parsnips, apples |
| November | Nothing essential | Garlic; bare-root fruit trees and bushes | Leeks, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, kale |
| December | Nothing essential | Bare-root fruit, if the ground isn't frozen | Leeks, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, kale, winter cabbage |
Crop rotation in four beds
Moving crop families to a different bed each year keeps soil-borne pests and diseases from building up and makes the most of the soil. A simple four-bed rotation moves each group on one bed a year:
| Group | Crops | Why it moves |
|---|---|---|
| Legumes | Peas and beans | Fix nitrogen in the soil, which the next crop in the bed uses. |
| Brassicas | Cabbage, kale, broccoli, sprouts, swede | Follow legumes to use that nitrogen; need firm soil and netting against pigeons and butterflies. |
| Potatoes | Potatoes and tomatoes | Share pests and diseases such as blight, so they move together. |
| Roots and onions | Carrots, parsnips, beetroot, onions, garlic, leeks | Need less feeding, and do best in soil that wasn't freshly manured. |
More grow-your-own guides
Monthly guides and growing guides for individual crops are on the way and will appear here as they're published. In the meantime, the calendar above covers the main jobs for each month.
Want help on your plot?
If you're in County Durham, I can visit your garden or allotment and help you plan beds, sort out the soil and work out a sowing plan that suits you, through veg and allotment coaching.
About veg coaching