What to Plant in August: A Zone-by-Zone Guide

What to Plant in August: A Zone-by-Zone Guide

The short answer: August is the fall garden's real planting month. In cold zones (3–5) the window is closing fast, so you're limited to quick crops: spinach, radishes, arugula, and lettuce sown in the first two weeks. In temperate zones (6–7) this is peak fall planting: set out the broccoli and cabbage transplants you started in July, and direct-sow carrots and beets. In warm zones (8–10) the heat finally breaks late in the month and the whole fall garden opens up. Find your zone below, or jump straight to your zone's August checklist.

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Last month the advice was to start fall crops. This month it's to get them in the ground. August is when the fall garden stops being a plan and becomes actual plants, and the difference between a good October harvest and an empty bed usually comes down to a two-week window in early August.

The reason is frost math. Every fall crop has a days-to-maturity number, and it has to finish before your first frost. But there's a second factor most guides skip: as daylight shortens through September and October, plants slow down. A 60-day crop sown in August often takes closer to 75 days to finish. Add two weeks of padding to whatever the seed packet says, count backward from your first frost date, and you'll see why the zone you garden in changes the answer completely. Not sure which one you're in? Look up your zone or start from your state's planting calendar.

❄️ Cold Zones (3–5): The Window Is Closing

With a first frost landing anywhere from mid-September to early October, you have roughly 45 to 60 usable days left. That rules out brassica transplants and long-season roots. What it doesn't rule out is a genuinely good salad garden, and greens sown now grow into cool weather that makes them taste better than anything you got in spring.

• Spinach — Sow the first two weeks of August. Spinach germinates poorly in warm soil, so water the furrow before sowing and shade it until seedlings appear. A late sowing can also overwinter under row cover for an early spring cut.
• Radishes — At 25 to 30 days, radishes are the one crop you can keep sowing right through the month and still harvest. Fall radishes are milder than spring ones.
• Arugula — Fast, cold-tolerant, and better in fall than any other season. Sow every two weeks for a continuous cut.
• Lettuce — Stick to loose-leaf types you can cut young. Head lettuce needs more runway than you have left this far north.
• Turnips — Sow in the first week for roots, or anytime in August if you're growing them for greens.
• Kale — Direct-sow early in the month. Kale handles frost and sweetens noticeably after the first one, so it's often the last thing standing in the fall garden. See the best kale varieties for Zone 5.
• Cilantro and dill — Both bolt instantly in summer heat and behave themselves in fall. This is their season.

One more thing worth doing now: prep the bed where garlic will go. You won't plant it until late September or October, but working compost in while the soil is still warm and workable saves you a cold, miserable afternoon later.

📋 Full August checklist for your zone: Zone 3 · Zone 4 · Zone 5

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🌤️ Temperate Zones (6–7): Peak Fall Planting

With frost typically arriving between late October and mid-November, you have 80 to 100 days of runway. That's enough for nearly the entire fall garden, and August is the month it all goes in. This is our home turf here in Milton, Georgia (Zone 7b), and it's the busiest planting stretch of our year after spring.

• Broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower — Transplant the seedlings you started in July, ideally in the first half of the month. Set them out on an overcast day or in the late afternoon, and shade them for the first few days. Fall brassicas dodge the cabbage worm pressure that wrecks spring plantings. See what does well in Zone 7.
• Carrots — Direct-sow early August. The seedbed has to stay damp for the ten-ish days carrots take to germinate, which in August heat means watering lightly every day. A board laid over the row holds moisture until they sprout.
• Beets — Sow anytime this month for roots and greens. More forgiving than carrots at germination.
• Kale and collards — Direct-sow or transplant. Both will produce into winter in Zone 7 with minimal protection.
• Bush beans — Early August is your last window. Pick a 50-to-55-day variety and get them in during the first week; a fall bean crop finishing in October is one of the more underrated harvests.
• Lettuce — Start in trays out of the afternoon sun and transplant late in the month, or direct-sow after the third week when soil temperatures ease. See lettuce for Zone 6.
• Spinach — Wait until the last week of August. Sown earlier, it sulks in warm soil and germinates unevenly.
• Turnips and radishes — Both do well sown mid-to-late month, when the worst of the heat has passed.

📋 Full August checklist for your zone: Zone 6 · Zone 7

☀️ Warm Zones (8–10): The Second Spring

In the Deep South, along the Gulf Coast, in Southern California, and across the desert Southwest, August is the hinge month. The first three weeks are still brutally hot, and then something shifts. Gardeners here get what amounts to a second spring, and the fall growing season is often more productive than the summer one.

• Tomatoes and peppers — In Zones 9 and 10, set out transplants in early August for a fall harvest. They'll sit and sulk for a few weeks, then take off once nights cool. See peppers for Zone 10.
• Bush beans — Sow now for a fall crop. Beans planted in August produce right through the mildest, most pleasant weather of the year here.
• Cucumbers and summer squash — A fresh August sowing outproduces the tired, mildewed spring vines and matures before any real cold arrives.
• Southern peas — Still perfectly happy in August heat, and they leave nitrogen behind for whatever follows.
• Broccoli, cabbage, and collards — Start transplants in trays early in the month and set them out in the last week, once the worst heat breaks. Zone 8 gardeners can direct-sow collards. See brassicas for Zone 8.
• Carrots and beets — Direct-sow from the third week onward, when soil temperatures finally drop into a range where they'll germinate evenly.
• Lettuce — Late August at the earliest, and give it afternoon shade. Sown any earlier it bolts before it makes a head.

📋 Full August checklist for your zone: Zone 8 · Zone 9 · Zone 10

The Germination Problem Nobody Warns You About

Almost every August planting failure traces back to the same thing: soil that's too warm and too dry for seeds that want cool and damp. Lettuce goes dormant above roughly 80°F. Spinach germinates badly in the same range. Carrots need consistent moisture for a week and a half, which August sun will undo in an afternoon.

Three fixes that cost almost nothing. Water the furrow deeply before you sow, not after, so moisture sits below the seed instead of crusting above it. Lay a board or a strip of burlap over the row and check daily, pulling it the moment you see green. And sow slightly deeper than you would in spring, where the soil is a few degrees cooler. None of this is complicated, but skipping it is why the same seed that sprouted fine in April does nothing in August.

Not Sure of Your Zone?

Everything above depends on your USDA hardiness zone and your local first-frost date. Look yours up and get a month-by-month planting calendar with frost dates, growing-season length, and the varieties that actually do well where you live on our free plant database. You can also start from your state's page and drill into your exact zone.

What You'll Want On Hand for August

Shade cloth in the 30–40% range is the single most useful thing you can own this month, both for germinating seedbeds and for newly set transplants. Beyond that: fast-maturing seed, since days-to-maturity matters more now than at any other point in the year; row cover for the cold-zone gardeners who'll want frost protection sooner than they expect; and seed-starting trays for the brassica transplants that warm-zone gardeners are starting now.

No Garden? Grow Indoors Year-Round

If you missed the fall window, or you're working with a balcony instead of a bed, microgreens sidestep the whole frost-date problem. They go from seed to harvest on a kitchen counter in 7 to 14 days, no zone required, and they'll keep producing through the winter when the outdoor garden is asleep. Start with our beginner's guide to growing microgreens at home or the best varieties to start with.

Missed last month? Here's what to plant in July. Next month: September, when garlic goes in across the cold zones and the fall harvest starts coming in everywhere else.

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