Free frost date widget for your website
Give your readers the one date every gardener asks about. They type a ZIP code and the widget shows their average last spring frost, first fall frost and frost-free days, with a cautious and a gambler date for each. Paste two lines of code into your page and it works. It is free, and it needs no account.
Try it, then copy it
How to add it
- Pick light or dark colours above and press Copy code.
- In WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Blogger or any page builder, add a “Custom HTML” (or “Embed code”) block and paste the code in.
- Keep the link under it. It is a normal link to our frost date finder, and it is what keeps the widget free.
Where the numbers come from
The widget uses the same frost data as every page on My Planting Calendar: state frost normals from NOAA, adjusted for each ZIP prefix by latitude. We say plainly that this is an estimate, and the widget says it too. See how we source data for the method and its limits.
Questions gardeners ask
Is the widget really free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no account and no limit on how many pages you put it on. The one thing we ask is that you keep the small link under it, which is how people find the full planting calendar.
Does it slow my site down or track my visitors?
No. It runs inside an iframe, loads one small page from our server and has no cookies, analytics, adverts or third-party scripts. Everything it needs is in that one page.
How accurate are the dates?
They are averages worked out from the first three digits of the ZIP code, shifted from state frost normals by latitude, so they are a good planning guide and not a forecast. In hilly or mountainous areas the widget says so and points visitors to a local weather station or their county extension office. The method is on the data sources page.
Can I change the colours or the size?
Choose light or dark above and copy the code. The width follows your page up to 560 pixels, and the height of 560 pixels fits the longest result on a phone. You can change both numbers in the code.
Can I start it on a particular ZIP code?
Yes. Add ?zip=27601 (or any ZIP) to the end of the address in the src part of the code, and the widget opens with that area already showing, for example on a page about gardening in one town.
Want something else for your site, such as planting dates for one crop or a list of what to plant this month? Tell us on the contact page.