🍅Tomato
Start seed indoors from September; plant out after the last frost.
Varieties for home gardens: Grosse Lisse, Apollo, Tommy Toe, Roma
September 2026 · Cool climate zone · ACT
What to plant now in Canberra
Canberra is the coldest capital to garden in and the one where timing is everything: frosts run from April to October, the last one can arrive in the third week of October, and summers are hot and dry. The growing season is short, so Canberra gardeners raise their summer crops indoors, plant out late, and make the most of a winter that suits brassicas, garlic and broad beans.
Updated 10 September 202640 crops to sow or plant this monthFrosts likely April – October
Print this page · it prints as a two-page sheet
The short answer
In short: this September in Canberra, sow or plant tomato, capsicum, chilli, eggplant, broad beans, peas, snow peas, lettuce, spinach, silverbeet; herbs: parsley, coriander, mint, rosemary, thyme; fruit: strawberry, passionfruit, lemon, orange.
Hold off on zucchini (from October), pumpkin (from October), cucumber (from October).
Vegetables to plant in Canberra in September
25 vegetables are in their sowing or planting window for the cool zone this month. “Ready in” is time from sowing to first pick.
🫑Capsicum
Loves a long warm season. Pick the first fruit green to keep the plant setting more; later fruit can ripen to red on the bush.
Varieties for home gardens: Californian Wonder, Giant Bell
🌶️Chilli
Treat like capsicum but tougher — chillies shrug off heat. In frost-free spots a plant will crop for several years.
Varieties for home gardens: Cayenne, Jalapeño, Birdseye
🍆Eggplant
Needs real warmth to get going — don't rush it into cold soil. Pick fruit while the skin is glossy; dull skin means seedy and bitter.
Varieties for home gardens: Black Beauty, Lebanese
🫘Broad beans
The great winter stalwart — sow in autumn and let them stand through the cold. Pinch out the growing tips once pods set; the tips are delicious wilted in butter.
Varieties for home gardens: Coles Dwarf, Aquadulce
🫛Peas
Sow from late winter; late frosts burn flowers, so stagger your sowings.
Varieties for home gardens: Greenfeast, Massey Gem
🫛Snow peas
Faster and more forgiving than shelling peas — pick the pods flat and young. The more you pick, the more they set.
Varieties for home gardens: Oregon, Melting Mammoth
🥬Lettuce
Sow a pinch every few weeks rather than a packet at once. In heat, pick loose-leaf types leaf by leaf and give them afternoon shade — bolting is the sun's fault, not yours.
Varieties for home gardens: Cos, Buttercrunch, Green Oak
🥬Spinach
True English spinach is a cool-weather crop — it bolts the moment things warm up. For summer greens, silverbeet does the same job without the sulking.
Varieties for home gardens: English Winter Giant
🥬Silverbeet
The hardest-working plant in the patch — cut the outer leaves and it keeps giving for a year. Twist leaves off at the base rather than cutting the crown.
Varieties for home gardens: Fordhook Giant, Rainbow Chard
🥬Rocket
From seed to salad in a month. It bolts fast in heat — sow small amounts often, and let one plant go to seed to keep the supply coming free.
Varieties for home gardens: Wild rocket, Salad rocket
🥬Kale
Frost makes kale sweeter, not worse. Pick outer leaves and leave the crown; watch for cabbage white butterflies in the warm months — netting beats spraying.
Varieties for home gardens: Tuscan (Cavolo Nero), Curly Green
🥬Cabbage
Sugarloaf types are quick and sweet; savoys stand longer in the cold. Firm heads keep in the fridge for weeks, so don't panic when they all come at once.
Varieties for home gardens: Sugarloaf, Savoy
🥬Pak choy & Asian greens
From seed to stir-fry in six weeks, and happy in every zone. Sow small amounts fortnightly; in heat they bolt, so give summer sowings some shade.
Varieties for home gardens: Pak choy, Bok choy, Tatsoi, Choy sum
🥕Carrot
Always sow direct — transplanted carrots fork. Keep the seed bed damp until they're up (a plank over the row works), and thin without mercy; crowded carrots stay skinny.
Varieties for home gardens: Topweight, All Seasons, Baby
Beetroot
Each wrinkly 'seed' is a cluster, so thin the clumps early — the thinnings are a salad green. Pick at tennis-ball size; giants go woody.
Varieties for home gardens: Derwent Globe, Bull's Blood
Radish
The fastest thing you can grow — great for impatient gardeners and grandchildren. Sow a short row every fortnight and pull them young.
Varieties for home gardens: French Breakfast, Cherry Belle
🥕Parsnip
Buy fresh seed every year — old parsnip seed simply doesn't come up. Slow to germinate and slow to grow, but frost turns the wait into sweetness.
Varieties for home gardens: Hollow Crown
Turnip
Quick, old-fashioned and underrated — pull at golf-ball size and they're sweet, not school-dinner. The young tops are good wilted too.
Varieties for home gardens: Purple Top White Globe
🥔Potato
Plant certified seed potatoes, not supermarket spuds, and hill soil up around the stems as they grow. Ready to bandicoot once the plants flower; for keepers, wait until the tops die down.
Varieties for home gardens: Sebago, Dutch Cream, Kipfler
🧅Spring onion
Sow thickly, harvest by the handful, and re-sow the gap — or just trim them 3cm above the soil and let them regrow. The workhorse of the herb-and-veg border.
Varieties for home gardens: Straightleaf, Red Beard
🧅Leek
Drop pencil-thick seedlings into deep dibber holes, water them in and don't backfill — the hole blanches the stem white as it grows. Stands happily in winter soil until you want it.
Varieties for home gardens: Musselburgh, Welsh Wonder
🥬Celery
The thirstiest thing in the patch — never let it dry out or it turns stringy and bitter. Pick outer stalks as you need them rather than taking the whole plant.
Varieties for home gardens: Stringless, South Australian White
🌿Rhubarb
Plant crowns in winter into rich soil and let them settle for a year before picking hard. Pull stalks with a twist rather than cutting — and remember the leaves are poisonous, compost only.
Varieties for home gardens: Wandin Red, Ever Red
🌿Globe artichoke
Half vegetable, half silver-leafed ornament — plant it where you can see it. Cut heads while the scales are still tight; once they open into thistle flowers the moment has passed (though the bees approve).
Varieties for home gardens: Green Globe, Purple de Provence
Get this for your own patch, week by week
The Morning Post Garden Planner takes your postcode and frost dates, tells you what to sow, plant and pick this week, prints a 12-month calendar for the shed wall, and keeps a log of what you planted with harvest reminders. It’s one of the members’ tools, included in Morning Post membership: $79 a year for the household.
See the Garden PlannerAlready a member? Open your planner
Herbs to plant in Canberra in September
Most herbs are happiest in a pot near the kitchen door; plant the perennials once and pick for years.
🌿Parsley
Slow to germinate — soak seed overnight and be patient for three weeks. One good sowing a year keeps a family in parsley; let a plant seed and you'll never sow again.
Varieties for home gardens: Flat-leaf (Italian), Curly
🌿Coriander
Coriander bolts at the first sign of heat or transplanting — sow direct in the cool months and pick fast. When it does bolt, let it: the seed is a spice and it self-sows.
Varieties for home gardens: Slow-bolt strains
🌿Mint
Plant it in a pot, always — in open soil mint annexes the bed within a season. Loves damp shade and hard picking; cut it back to nothing twice a year.
Varieties for home gardens: Common mint, Spearmint, Peppermint
🌿Rosemary
Thrives on neglect, sun and sharp drainage — the classic no-fuss Australian shrub. Prune after flowering to keep it dense; strike cuttings for free plants.
Varieties for home gardens: Tuscan Blue (upright), Prostrate
🌿Thyme
Happiest hot, dry and a little starved — rich wet soil kills it kindly. Grow it at the path edge where you'll brush past and get the scent.
Varieties for home gardens: Common thyme, Lemon thyme
🌿Oregano
Cut it back hard twice a year and dry the trimmings — dried oregano is one of the few herbs better than fresh. Spreads politely as a groundcover.
Varieties for home gardens: Greek oregano, Common marjoram
🌿Chives
Cut with scissors 3cm above the soil and they regrow within weeks. Divide the clumps every few years and give spares away — the pink pompom flowers are edible too.
Varieties for home gardens: Common chives, Garlic chives
🌿Dill
Sow direct — like coriander it bolts if moved or overheated. Feathery leaves for fish and potatoes, seed heads for pickling; let some self-sow.
Varieties for home gardens: Common dill, Fernleaf
🌿Sage
Sun, drainage, and not much else — soggy winters are the only thing that kills it. Pick before flowering for the best leaves; unbeatable with pumpkin and butter.
Varieties for home gardens: Common sage, Purple sage
Fruit to plant in Canberra in September
Fruit trees and vines are a once-a-year decision: this is a good month to get them in the ground in your zone.
🍓Strawberry
Plant runners with the crown proud of the soil, mulch with straw (the clue's in the name) and net before the birds do their rounds. Runners from your best plants are next year's bed for free.
Varieties for home gardens: Red Gauntlet, Sweetheart, Alinta
🌺Passionfruit
Frost-tender, especially young — give it a warm north-facing wall and cover its first winters.
Varieties for home gardens: Nellie Kelly (grafted), Panama Gold, Panama Red
🍋Lemon
Choose Meyer and protect young trees from frost for their first two winters.
Varieties for home gardens: Eureka, Lisbon, Meyer (hardiest in cold spots)
🍊Orange
Navels for winter eating, Valencias for summer juice — plant one of each and you're covered most of the year. Same care as a lemon: feed twice a year, water deeply in dry spells.
Varieties for home gardens: Washington Navel, Valencia
🍋Lime
The most cold-shy of the common citrus — give it the warmest corner you have. Tahitian for juice, makrut for leaves, and the native finger lime if you like showing off.
Varieties for home gardens: Tahitian, Makrut (kaffir), Australian finger lime
🫐Blueberry
Needs acid soil — in most gardens that means a big pot of camellia-azalea mix. Water with rain water where you can, net the crop, and pick only berries that are fully blue-black.
Varieties for home gardens: Brigitta & Blue Rose (cool), Sunshine Blue & Misty (low-chill)
Coming into harvest in Canberra this month
Worked back from each crop’s sowing window and its usual weeks-to-harvest in the cool zone. If you got these in on time, start checking them now.
🫘 Broad beansif you planted in April
🥬 Rocketif you planted in August
Not yet: what to hold off planting in Canberra
Frosts likely April – October. All of Canberra frosts. The low-lying suburbs along the Molonglo and in Tuggeranong, and anywhere in the frost hollows of Gungahlin and the Majura Valley, get it hardest; north-facing slopes in the inner north get away with a little less.
🥒 Zucchiniwait until October — frost-tender
🎃 Pumpkinwait until October — frost-tender
🥒 Cucumberwait until October — frost-tender
🫛 Bush beanswait until October — frost-tender
🌽 Sweet cornwait until October — frost-tender
🌿 Basilwait until October — frost-tender
🥦 Broccoliwait until December
🧄 Garlicwait until March
This month’s jobs in the Canberra garden
- Hold your nerve — one late frost can take out early tomatoes, so keep covers handy
- Feed the whole garden as growth takes off
- Watch for aphids on new growth; squash small outbreaks by hand
Frost in Canberra
All of Canberra frosts. The low-lying suburbs along the Molonglo and in Tuggeranong, and anywhere in the frost hollows of Gungahlin and the Majura Valley, get it hardest; north-facing slopes in the inner north get away with a little less.
Soil
Canberra's soils are mostly shallow clay over rock, often compacted by building, so raised beds filled with a proper soil mix are the standard local answer.
Water
Canberra's permanent water conservation measures allow watering any time with a trigger hose but restrict sprinklers to before 9am and after 6pm; summer is dry and the storms are unreliable, so mulch deep.
The pest that matters here
Kangaroos, possums and cockatoos will eat a Canberra vegetable garden before any insect does, which is why so many local patches are fully netted or fenced.
Local rule of thumb
The Canberra rule is unbending: no tomatoes, basil or pumpkins in the ground before the Melbourne Cup, and many locals wait for the second week of November.
Six Canberra tips
- Start tomatoes, capsicum, chilli and eggplant from seed indoors in September and grow them on in a sunny window or a cold frame until early November.
- Keep frost covers on hand right through October: a clear, still night after a warm day is exactly when Canberra frosts.
- Garlic is Canberra's easiest crop. Plant cloves in April or May and harvest around the summer solstice.
- Choose short-season varieties (cherry tomatoes, bush beans, early zucchini) so they ripen before the first April frost ends the season.
- Net the patch. Kangaroos, cockatoos and possums are the reason most Canberra gardens are behind wire.
- The Canberra Organic Growers Society runs community gardens across the city, and the National Arboretum's kitchen-garden plantings show what copes with a Canberra winter.
When to plant tomatoes, potatoes, garlic and more in Canberra
Sowing and planting windows for the cool zone, which covers Canberra, Melbourne, Bendigo, Tasmania and the tablelands. Frost-tender crops go in after your district’s last frost; The Canberra rule is unbending: no tomatoes, basil or pumpkins in the ground before the Melbourne Cup, and many locals wait for the second week of November.
| Crop | Sow or plant in Canberra |
|---|---|
| 🍅 Tomato | September – December — now |
| 🥔 Potato | September – November — now |
| 🧄 Garlic | March – June |
| 🥒 Zucchini | October – January |
| 🎃 Pumpkin | October – December |
| 🥒 Cucumber | October – January |
| 🫛 Bush beans | October – January |
| 🫑 Capsicum | September – November — now |
| 🌽 Sweet corn | October – December |
| 🫘 Broad beans | March – September — now |
| 🫛 Peas | August – November — now |
| 🥕 Carrot | September – February — now |
| 🧅 Onion | April – August |
| 🍓 Strawberry | April – May and September – October — now |
| 🌿 Basil | October – December |
| 🥦 Broccoli | December – March |
Looking ahead: October in Canberra
Opening up next month: zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, sweet corn, bush beans, climbing beans, watermelon, rockmelon, basil. This page is rebuilt every month from the Garden Planner’s cool-zone calendar, so bookmark it and come back on the 1st.
Questions Canberra gardeners ask
When should I plant tomatoes in Canberra?
In Canberra’s cool zone, tomatoes are sown or planted September – December. The Canberra rule is unbending: no tomatoes, basil or pumpkins in the ground before the Melbourne Cup, and many locals wait for the second week of November.
What can I plant in Canberra right now, in September?
In short: this September in Canberra, sow or plant tomato, capsicum, chilli, eggplant, broad beans, peas, snow peas, lettuce, spinach, silverbeet; herbs: parsley, coriander, mint, rosemary, thyme; fruit: strawberry, passionfruit, lemon, orange. Hold off on zucchini (from October), pumpkin (from October), cucumber (from October).
Is Canberra a cool, temperate or subtropical gardening zone?
Canberra sits in the cool zone on the standard Australian seed-packet climate map — Cold frosty winters, short warm summers — timing matters most here. Frosts likely April – October.
What is coming into harvest in Canberra in September?
If you planted on time, broad beans, rocket should be coming into harvest now.
When is the last frost in Canberra?
Frosts run from April to October in Canberra, and the last one can arrive in the third week of October; the low-lying suburbs along the Molonglo, Tuggeranong and the frost hollows of Gungahlin get it hardest. Keep frost covers on hand right through October, and plant tomatoes, basil and pumpkins out after the Melbourne Cup.
What to plant now in other cities
Get Canberra’s free morning email
Local news, what’s on, a daily puzzle and, every second Monday, In the Garden — the season’s jobs for Canberra gardens. Free, five minutes, 6am.
100% free · No spam · Unsubscribe anytime
Planting windows are the Garden Planner’s curated cool-zone calendar (the standard five-zone Australian model, each zone anchored to its harshest common member), reviewed against Gardenate, Yates and state agriculture sources in 2026. Your own garden may run a fortnight either way of the zone: a north-facing wall, a frost hollow or a coastal breeze all shift it. Members can set their exact frost dates in the planner.