A 12 x 12 in steel plate for the garden gate, printed for your ZIP code. It shows your last and first frost dates and when to plant 11 vegetables, month by month.
Green bars show when to sow seed. Orange bars show when to set out transplants. Two blue lines mark your frost dates. You read it from the path, not off a phone.
How we set your dates
- Frost dates come from NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals for the nearest weather station to your ZIP with a full 30-year frost record. We print the 1-in-10 date for a 32°F night: in 9 springs out of 10, your last frost comes before it.
- Planting windows come from the University of Tennessee Extension planting tables, moved earlier or later to fit your frost dates. Far from Tennessee, we check them against your state's extension guide before we print.
- Both sources are printed along the bottom of the plate.
- It is a planting guide. Check your soil and the 10-day forecast before you plant.
What's on it
- Your ZIP code and town across the top, with both frost dates.
- Eleven crops: peas, spinach, kale, lettuce, carrot, broccoli, bush beans, cucumber, zucchini, tomato and pepper. Cool-season crops get a spring and a fall window.
Specs
- 12 x 12 in, 14 gauge steel, rounded corners.
- Printed in full color on our flatbed UV printer. Weatherproof, and the print won't fade.
- Welded to a 48 in square steel stake. Drive it about 18 in into the ground and the plate sits about 30 in up. Two holes let you bolt it to a gate post or fence instead.
- Printed and built in our Tennessee shop.
Made to order. Printed after you order. If your ZIP has no frost date on record, or its seasons don't fit the chart, we refund the order.
Care
- Hose it off.
The ZIP where the garden is. We set the frost dates and planting windows from it.