Baby Food Garden by Growing Zone: What to Plant Where You Live

A parent in Minnesota and a parent in Georgia are not working the same calendar. What gets planted after Mother's Day in Zone 4 goes in the ground in February in Zone 8. Here's how to plan your baby food garden around your actual climate.

Cool-climate zones (3-5): short season, early start

Frost-free season: mid-May through mid-September (90-120 days). Your strategy: start seeds indoors early and focus on cold-hardy crops.

Best baby food crops:

• Peas - direct sow as soon as soil can be worked (April). Ready by June.
• Broccoli - start indoors 6 weeks before last frost. Transplant in May, harvest July.
• Kale - extremely cold-hardy, actually sweeter after frost. Plant early spring or late summer.
• Carrots - direct sow May, harvest August. Choose shorter varieties (Nantes type) for faster maturity.
• Zucchini - start indoors late April, transplant after last frost. Produces heavily July-September.

Season extension: A simple row cover or cold frame adds 3-4 weeks to both ends of the season. Worth the $20 investment for a baby food garden.

Mid-climate zones (6-7): the sweet spot

Frost-free season: late April through mid-October (150-180 days). You can grow almost everything.

Best baby food crops:

• All of the cool-climate crops above, plus:
• Sweet potato - needs 100+ warm days. Plant slips after last frost, harvest before first frost.
• Green beans - direct sow every 3 weeks from May through July for continuous harvest.
• Butternut squash - plant May, harvest September. Stores through winter.

Succession planting: Your long season means you can do 2-3 rounds of fast crops like beans, zucchini, and cucumber.

Warm-climate zones (8-10): year-round growing

Frost-free season: 240-365 days. Your challenge is heat, not cold.

Best baby food crops:

• Sweet potato - thrives in heat. Plant spring, harvest fall. Your best crop.
• Green beans - plant in spring and fall. Too hot midsummer in Zone 9-10.
• Broccoli and peas - these are fall/winter crops in warm zones. Plant September-October.
• Zucchini - plant early spring before the heat, or late summer for fall harvest.

Key difference: In warm zones, your cool-season BLW crops (broccoli, peas, kale) are fall and winter crops. Flip the calendar from what you see in northern gardening guides.

Finding your zone

If you know your zip code, you know your zone. SowAndSpoon's planting calculator takes your zip code and baby's birthday and figures out both your zone and exactly which crops to plant right now. No need to look it up separately.

Timing it to your baby

Once you know your zone and frost dates, work backward from your baby's age. If your baby is 4 months old and you are in Zone 6, you have about 60 days before they start solids. That lines up with fast-maturing crops like zucchini and green beans.

Enter your baby's birthday in the planting calculator below to see exactly what to plant right now for your zone.