Why plant on Saint Catherine’s Day? Key dates in the calendar of gardening saints

Champ de fleurs sauvages — calendrier des saints jardiniers SemiSauvage

👥 When saints served as a calendar

Before weather apps, gardeners and farmers used the religious holidays on the calendar to keep track of the year, repeating on the same dates every year. Sowing, pruning, planting: each task had its patron saint. Here’s a look at the best-known dates and why they have endured through the centuries.

🌳 November 25 — Saint Catherine: “every tree takes root”

The most famous date in the gardeners’ calendar. In autumn, the sap in trees retreats toward the roots: planting at this time gives them the entire winter to establish themselves properly before growth resumes in spring. It has traditionally been considered an ideal time to plant trees and shrubs.

❄️ May 11–13 — The Ice Saints: the end of late frosts

Mamert, Pancras, and Servatius, the three “Ice Saints,” are associated with a possible return of cold weather in the middle of May. Tradition holds that once they have passed, the risk of frost is definitively over—a signal to plant the seedlings most vulnerable to the cold in the ground: tomatoes, zucchini, and other summer vegetables.

🍇 January 22 — Saint Vincent: pruning the vines

It is traditionally around Saint Vincent’s Day, the patron saint of winegrowers, that vine pruning begins—before sap starts circulating again and the first buds appear.

🥕 March 19 — Saint Joseph: between sowing and pruning

A turning point that varies by region: some sayings associate this date with the start of carrot sowing (“sow your carrots on Saint Joseph’s Day”), while others associate it with pruning garden trees. In any case, it is a useful marker that spring is settling in.

📆 Find all the dates on our calendar

These saints’ days are combined with the lunar calendar (phases, root/leaf/flower/fruit days) to form an entire tradition of folk gardening. We have brought it all together—dates, sayings, and the 2026 lunar calendar—on a single page.

👉 Visit our “Gardening with the Moon” page