December is the first month of the year that's frost-free in every part of New Zealand. Nothing new opens for sowing this month — everything sowable now opened in spring. What changes is the harvest. Broccoli, carrot, peas and broad beans start cropping everywhere, tomatoes come in further south, and garlic timing splits by region. Most of the country is lifting its last bulbs, while Central Otago and the high country are just starting.

Quick Answer: Plant These Anywhere in NZ

Twelve crops are inside their sowing window in every NZ growing zone this December:

  • Basil and climbing beans
  • Courgette
  • Beetroot, carrot and radish
  • Lettuce, pak choy, silverbeet and spinach
  • Peas (sow September–February)
  • Mizuna (sow August–December) — last month

Mizuna closes at the end of December everywhere. The rest stay open into the new year. Quick crops — radish, lettuce, pak choy and spinach — are the ones to succession-sow into beds freed up as earlier crops finish. See Succession Planting in NZ for a rhythm that keeps beds full.

The basil, beans and courgette on this list are frost-tender, but with frost season over everywhere, they can go straight in. The planting-window notes advise growing courgettes in pairs, a metre apart, for reliable pollination.

Harvests opening everywhere

  • Broccoli (from December) — cut the central head first, then keep picking the side shoots. Net against white butterfly.
  • Broad beans (December–February) — pinch out the tops as they flower to deter aphids.
  • Carrot (from December) and peas (from December) — first pulls and pods from spring sowings.

Mustard greens finish their short November–December harvest this month. Kale, coriander, lettuce, spinach, beetroot, silverbeet and radish are all still cropping.

Not sure which zone you're in? The NZ frost dates guide covers it by town.

Sub-Tropical: Northland, Auckland and Coastal Taranaki

Last calls: December closes the sowing windows for basil, climbing beans and courgette here (all open since July–September), a month or two ahead of the rest of the country. Tamarillo also closes its October–December sowing window, the only one it gets all year. Tamarillo takes around two years to first fruit, so missing December pushes the payoff back a whole year. See the tamarillo growing guide.

December is also the end of the transplant window for broccoli and cucumber seedlings. Passionfruit vines can still be planted until January — see passionfruit varieties.

Harvest: Capsicum opens its harvest window this month (December–May). That completes the trio sown together in June: tomato started cropping in October, eggplant in November, and now capsicum. Climbing beans sown in September start cropping (December–March), so check their supports are holding the weight. Courgette, cucumber and basil are in full swing.

Temperate: Most of the Country

The temperate list adds four crops to the twelve above: cucumber (until January), pumpkin (until January), and Jerusalem artichoke and yacon, which close at the end of December. The tuber crops go in as tubers or crown divisions, not seed. Koanga Institute is the only supplier with planting data for either crop, so the window edges are our own frost-anchored estimate.

Transplant deadline: December is the last month to plant out tomato, capsicum, eggplant and broccoli seedlings. Get anything still in trays into the ground now. Basil and cucumber can be transplanted until February.

Harvest: Tomato comes into harvest this month (December–April), the first fruit from October transplants. Garlic's harvest window closes at the end of December (November–December). Lift any remaining bulbs promptly, since mature garlic left in warm soil is prone to splitting and rot rather than gaining size. Cure it somewhere dry and airy.

Cool/Mountain: Central Otago, Queenstown and the Central Plateau

Cool/mountain gardens have the same sowing list as the temperate zone, including the last Jerusalem artichoke and yacon plantings. Tomato, capsicum, eggplant and broccoli transplanting also closes this month.

Garlic is where this zone differs. Garlic here was planted latest in the country, near the June solstice, because hardneck garlic needs an extended spell below 10°C to form cloves. So the harvest comes later too: December–January. If you're used to a generic NZ calendar, don't lift early. In warmer regions garlic is finishing now, but here it's just starting. For more, see the Canterbury garlic guide.

Tomato harvest opens here too (December–March), but runs a month shorter than in the temperate zone, because autumn frost returns as early as March. Basil and courgette also finish in March. Keep that in mind when you plan your last summer sowings for January: anything frost-tender needs to finish by then.

Recommended Cultivars

These cultivar picks for December's sowings come from NZ suppliers:

  • Courgette — Cocozelle, Gold Rush F1 (Kings Seeds NZ); Cocozelle Bush (Koanga Institute)
  • Climbing beans — Market Wonder, Dutch, Henry's Climbing Butter (AKA Yellow Pole) (Koanga Institute)
  • Basil — Sweet Genovese, Mrs Burns Lemon (Kings Seeds NZ)
  • Lettuce — Little Caesar, Red Caesar (Kings Seeds NZ)
  • Peas — Snow Sugar Pod (Kings Seeds NZ); William F Massey (Koanga Institute)
  • Beetroot — Golden Detroit (Kings Seeds NZ); Golden (Koanga Institute)
  • Carrot — Nutri-Yellow F1, Nutri-White F1 (Kings Seeds NZ)
  • Spinach — Summer Solstice F1 (Kings Seeds NZ)
  • Temperate and cool/mountain — Cucumber: Port Albert (Koanga Institute). Pumpkin: Henri's Potimarron, Crown Prince F1 (Kings Seeds NZ); Squash Zimbabwe (Koanga Institute).

There are no approved cultivar picks yet for mizuna, pak choy, radish, Jerusalem artichoke, yacon or tamarillo.

December Garden Jobs, Anywhere in NZ

These are general summer jobs, not zone-sourced planting data:

  • Check supports under tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and pumpkins as they bulk up.
  • Refill beds as garlic, mustard greens and early crops finish — a quick radish or lettuce sowing beats bare soil.
  • Water deeply and mulch as the first settled summer heat arrives.
  • Keep picking. Courgettes, beans and peas produce more the more often they're harvested.

Next Steps

For month-by-month sowing and harvest timing in your area, see the full planting calendar for your zone: