When to plant garlic
The rule
Method: Plant cloves outdoors in fall (no indoor start). Frost tolerance: frost-hardy (derived from the planting timing above).
Garlic is planted in fall, not spring. Cloves go in 1–2 weeks after your first frost so they root before the ground freezes, overwinter, then bulb up and harvest the following summer — spring planting gives poor, small bulbs.
Garlic planting dates by hardiness zone
| Zone | Plant cloves (fall) |
|---|---|
| Zone 2a | September 11 – September 25 |
| Zone 2b | September 19 – October 3 |
| Zone 3b | September 23 – October 7 |
| Zone 4a | October 1 – October 15 |
| Zone 4b | October 4 – October 18 |
| Zone 5a | October 5 – October 19 |
| Zone 5b | October 12 – October 26 |
| Zone 6a | October 19 – November 2 |
| Zone 6b | October 24 – November 7 |
| Zone 7a | October 30 – November 13 |
| Zone 7b | November 5 – November 19 |
| Zone 8a | November 12 – November 26 |
| Zone 8b | November 19 – December 3 |
| Zone 9a | November 29 – December 13 |
| Zone 9b | December 12 – December 26 |
| Zone 10a | December 6 – December 20 |
| Zone 10b | January 29 – February 12 |
What you'll need
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Calendar computed 2026-09-27. Sources: University of Illinois Extension — Herb Gardening: Garlic; NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 Climate Normals (frost); USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map.