Calgary garden 🌱
Yes, you can grow food in Calgary
Short summers, late frosts, hail and chinooks. Here is what we do in our community garden plot, month by month.
Know your season
Calgary garden basics
Zone 4aCalgary's plant hardiness zone
Late MayLast spring frost is usually around the May long weekend
Mid-SeptFirst fall frost often comes in the middle of September
~110 daysFrost-free growing season, so pick quick-growing varieties
Calgary tip: frost dates move from year to year and from one part of the city to another. Watch the forecast, keep frost cloth handy in late May and early September, and protect plants from hail from June to August.
Month by month
Our Calgary garden calendar
January – February plan
- Plan the beds and rotate crops from last year
- Order seeds early; popular varieties sell out
- Test old seed: 10 seeds on a damp paper towel
- Late February: start onions and leeks indoors
March start indoors
- Start peppers and celery indoors (8–10 weeks before last frost)
- Set up grow lights; seedlings get leggy on a windowsill
- Chinook days: don't be fooled, winter isn't over
April start indoors
- Early April: start tomatoes (6–8 weeks before last frost)
- Start cabbage, broccoli and kale indoors
- Late April: sow peas, spinach and radishes once the soil can be worked
May plant out
- Sow carrots, beets, lettuce and plant potatoes
- Harden off seedlings: a few hours outside, more each day
- After the May long weekend: tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, beans
- Keep frost cloth ready for cold nights
June grow
- Thin carrots and beets, weed every week
- Mulch to keep moisture in
- Hail season: cover young plants when storms are forecast
- Sow more lettuce and radishes every 2–3 weeks
July grow & pick
- Water deeply, early in the morning
- Pick peas, lettuce and garlic scapes
- Stake and tie tomatoes; pinch suckers
August harvest
- Main harvest: beans, zucchini, cucumbers, early potatoes
- Early August: sow a quick crop of radishes or spinach
- Late August: pinch tomato tops so fruit ripens before frost
September harvest
- Watch for the first frost; cover or pick tender crops
- Dig potatoes, pull onions, bring in green tomatoes to ripen
- Carrots, kale and cabbage handle light frost fine
October plant garlic
- Early to mid October: plant garlic for next summer
- Clean up, compost healthy plants
- Dig in leaves or compost for next spring
November – December rest
- Mulch the garlic bed with straw or leaves
- Clean and sharpen tools
- Write down what grew well, and what didn't
General guidance for Calgary from our own garden; your microclimate may differ.
Garden videos
Our community garden plot
Coming soon: a garden planner
A seed box, a "what to do this week" list for Calgary, and garden layouts. We're building it for our own garden first.