Guides

Answers to the questions gardeners actually ask, built on cooperative-extension sources and the climate data for where you garden.

• Typical frost dates by USDA hardiness zone

  Median last spring and first fall frost dates, the typical range, and season length for each USDA zone in the lower 48, from 30-year NOAA climate normals.

• What garden planner apps cost and what each one does

  What Seedtime, Planter, GrowVeg, the Almanac Garden Planner and Row & Bed charge, what each one runs on, whether each has a free tier, and what each is built around, read off each product's own site or app store listing.

• Typical first and last frost dates by state

  Median last spring frost, first fall frost, and frost-free season length for the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia, from 30-year NOAA climate normals.

• What soil temperature each crop needs to germinate

  The soil temperature at which seed starts to germinate, for every plant in the Row & Bed reference library that records one, listed coldest first with how each is normally started.

• Why fall planting dates disagree by a month or more

  Published cooperative-extension fall planting dates for the same crops, converted to days before each region's own first frost, differ by weeks between regions, which is why no single national fall planting date exists.

• When to plant garlic in the South

  Three neighboring southern states publish three different fall windows for the same crop. The reason is worth understanding before you pick your date.

• What soil temperature fall greens need

  Lettuce and spinach seed stops germinating well before the weather stops feeling like summer. The number that matters is in the soil, not the air.

• First frost: what to cover, what to harvest, what to let go

  The first frost of the season sorts a garden into three groups. Knowing which group a crop is in saves you a cold evening of covering things that did not need it.

• Putting your beds to bed for winter

  Most of what you clear out of a vegetable bed in November is about next year, not this one. What you pull, and where it goes afterward, is the part that matters.