January planting calendar
winterWhat to plant in January
Deep winter in most of the US and UK. The work this month is planning, ordering seeds, and starting the earliest cold-hardy seeds indoors for zones 3-7. Warm zones 9-10 are actively growing cool-season crops.
Universal January tasks
These tasks apply to most temperate gardens across the US and UK in January. Check the per-zone sections below for the specific crops to plant in your zone.
- Order seeds for the spring garden — popular varieties sell out by February.
- Sketch a garden plan and rotate crop families away from where they grew last year.
- Clean, sharpen, and oil pruners, loppers, and shovels before spring.
- Inspect overwintered garlic, perennial herbs, and mulch — top up where exposed.
- Set up seed-starting lights and check that timers and heat mats still work.
- Prune dormant fruit trees and grapes on a mild, dry day.
UK gardeners — January
Across the UK, January is the planning month. Sow onions, leeks, and broad beans under cover from late January in milder southern gardens. RHS H4-H5 zones should keep overwintered kale, leeks, and parsnips harvested and mulched.
Most of England and Wales falls in RHS H4-H5 (roughly USDA 7-8). Scotland skews cooler (H3-H4); coastal southwest skews warmer (H5). See UK hardiness ratings →
January planting by USDA zone
Pick your USDA zone for the full crop-by-crop list for January. Each zone page includes sowing, transplanting, harvesting, and maintenance actions.
Zone 3 — January
4 actions- Prep & plan: Seed catalogs and garden plan
- Maintain: Indoor lights and seed-start gear
- Maintain: Garlic and perennial mulch
See full zone 3 plan →
Zone 4 — January
4 actions- Prep & plan: Seed catalogs and garden plan
- Maintain: Overwintered garlic mulch
- Prep & plan: Dormant pruning
See full zone 4 plan →
Zone 5 — January
4 actions- Prep & plan: Seed orders
- Sow indoors: Onions and leeks
- Prep & plan: Dormant pruning
See full zone 5 plan →
Zone 6 — January
4 actions- Sow indoors: Onions and leeks
- Sow indoors: Slow-growing perennial herbs
- Prep & plan: Dormant pruning
See full zone 6 plan →
Zone 7 — January
4 actions- Sow indoors: Onions, leeks, celery, celeriac
- Sow outdoors: Peas (late January)
- Harvest: Overwintered greens
See full zone 7 plan →
Zone 8 — January
4 actions- Sow indoors: Tomatoes (late January for transplants in March)
- Sow indoors: Peppers and eggplant
- Sow outdoors: Peas, spinach, lettuce, radishes
See full zone 8 plan →
Zone 9 — January
4 actions- Sow outdoors: Tomatoes (transplants), peppers, beans
- Sow outdoors: Carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, peas
- Harvest: Citrus, winter brassicas, greens
See full zone 9 plan →
Zone 10 — January
4 actions- Sow outdoors: Tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, squash
- Sow outdoors: Cool-season greens (winter is the prime season here)
- Harvest: Citrus, avocado, papaya, winter greens
See full zone 10 plan →
Zones 1-2 and 11-13 in January
Sub-Arctic zones 1-2 (interior Alaska and northern Canada) are still effectively dormant for any month outside June-August. Greenhouse and cold-frame work dominates the calendar; outdoor planting compresses into a 60-90 day window.
Tropical zones 11-13 (Hawaii, southern Florida, Puerto Rico) have no frost cycle. Calendar timing depends on the wet/dry seasons rather than spring/fall frost — most temperate crops grow October through April, with the hot-wet summer as the off-season.
Source and methodology
Timing curated against US Cooperative Extension publications (UNL, UMN, NC State, Texas A&M, UF/IFAS, Oregon State) and cross-checked against the RHS sowing calendar for UK readers. Frost-date averages from NOAA Climate Data Online. Curated by the Growli editorial team.