December closes tamarillo's October–December sowing window — the last chance of the year for a crop that only gets one. It's also when capsicum's harvest opens, completing a staggered trio that started with tomato in October and eggplant in November: all three were sown together back in June, and all three are now finally cropping.

Quick Answer: What to Sow Now

Thirteen crops remain open for sowing this December: basil, beans (climbing), beetroot, carrot, courgette, lettuce, mizuna, pak choy, peas, radish, silverbeet, spinach and tamarillo.

Last Call: Tamarillo

Tamarillo's sowing window closes at the end of this month and doesn't reopen until next October — a genuinely rare deadline on this zone's calendar, where most crops get a second or third chance across the year. Miss it now and the wait is roughly ten months, not a few weeks. That long runway is exactly why the window exists at all: tamarillo takes about two years from planting to first fruit, then stays productive for roughly a decade, so a missed December isn't really about losing this season's harvest — it's about pushing the whole decade-long payoff back by a further year. Tamarillo Growing Guide for NZ Sub-Tropical covers site selection and what that two-year wait to first fruit actually looks like in practice.

Capsicum Completes the Trio

Capsicum's harvest window opens this month, following tomato (October) and eggplant (November) — the last of the three frost-tender crops sown together back in June to finally start fruiting. The staggered order isn't random: each crop's own maturity timeline decides when its harvest opens, even though all three went into trays on the same June–September schedule and moved outdoors on the same August–October transplant window. All three now crop through to next autumn's first frost, so from this month on it's genuinely a three-crop harvest rather than a rolling handoff between them.

More Harvests Opening

Broad beans (December–February) and broccoli (December–March) both open their harvest windows this month — pinch broad bean tops as they flower to deter aphids, and cut broccoli's central head first before working through the side shoots that follow. Carrot (December–August) and peas (December–May) open too, both from among the longest-running sowing windows on this zone's calendar. Climbing beans join them, on a roughly 90-day cycle from September's sowing — check plants are still well supported on their trellis now that they're carrying a full crop's weight rather than just foliage.

Mustard Greens Closes Out

Mustard greens' short November–December harvest window ends this month — pick what's left rather than letting it run on.

Still Sowing

Basil, beetroot, courgette, lettuce, mizuna, pak choy, radish, silverbeet and spinach all remain comfortably within their windows from last month, with nothing December-specific to flag for any of them — treat this as a continuation rather than a fresh decision.

Also Cropping This Month

Coriander, cucumber and kale are all still being harvested from earlier sowings, with nothing new required of any of them this month. Passionfruit remains in its October–January transplant window — still time to get a vine in if you haven't already, though it's worth remembering this crop needs a genuinely frost-free, sheltered site regardless of when in the window it goes in.

Timing Notes for Sub-Tropical Gardens

This zone's frost window has been closed since the end of September, so December's deadlines aren't weather-driven — tamarillo's sowing window closes on its own annual cycle, the same as every other "last call" this site has tracked through spring. Capsicum, eggplant and tomato all reaching harvest together is really a June decision paying off rather than anything specific to summer conditions now.

That pattern holds across most of this zone's calendar: the driver behind a given month's headline event is rarely the weather in that exact month. Garlic's November harvest traced back to a March planting; the tender trio's staggered harvest traces back to a single June sowing date; tamarillo's whole rhythm is set by a two-year establishment period that has nothing to do with any single month at all. December is simply where several of those separate clocks happen to land at once.

Know your zone? Explore the full NZ Sub-Tropical Planting Calendar for month-by-month sowing and harvest timing.