Getting the garden ready for winter
How to get your garden ready for winter
Eight fall jobs in the order they come, each from a university extension service. Enter your ZIP for your own frost dates.
Free. No account. Built from NOAA climate records, the USDA hardiness map and university extension guides.
How do I get my garden ready for winter?
Bring houseplants in when nights drop below 55 °F, plant spring bulbs and garlic while the soil cools, dig dahlias, cannas and gladiolus after the first frost, protect young trees before winter, leave some stems and leaves for insects, and mulch perennials that heave once the ground freezes.
Before the first frost
- Bring houseplants and tender potted plants indoors. Bring houseplants indoors when night temperatures drop below 55 °F, which comes weeks before the first frost, and check them for insects before they come in. Source: Ken Johnson, "Bring houseplants indoors before the first frost", University of Illinois Extension, 2020.
- Plant spring bulbs. Plant tulips, daffodils, crocus and hyacinth once the soil cools to about 50 to 55 °F, and keep planting until a couple of weeks before the ground freezes. Set each bulb two to three times as deep as it is tall, measured from its base. Source: Lisa Johnson, "Plant Bulbs Now for Spring Color", University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension, 2021.
- Plant garlic. Plant garlic in the window your state extension service gives, several weeks before the ground freezes. Source: your state's page under When to plant garlic.
After the first frost
- Dig dahlias, cannas and gladiolus. Dig dahlias once frost has darkened the plant, and gladiolus corms after frost. Let cannas dry for several days after frost has killed their tops, then lift them. Source: Michael N. Dana, "Winter Storage of Geranium, Canna, Gladiolus, Caladium, and Begonia" (HO-85), Purdue University Cooperative Extension.
In late fall, before the ground freezes
- Keep watering new trees. If the weather is dry, keep watering newly planted trees until the soil freezes. Source: Aaron Steil, "Fall Garden Tasks", Iowa State University Extension, 2026.
- Protect young trees from rabbits and voles. Wrap young trees at least 36 inches up the trunk, or set quarter-inch hardware cloth cylinders around them with the bottom 2 to 3 inches buried, and keep wood mulch at least 6 inches from the trunk. Source: Aaron Steil, Iowa State University Extension: "Fall Garden Tasks" (2026) and "How to Protect Trees and Shrubs from Animal Damage Over Winter" (reviewed 2026).
Through the winter
- Leave stems, leaves and some bare ground. Leave some flower stems standing, because native bees nest and shelter in hollow stems. Leave fallen leaves in the beds to insulate overwintering insects, and leave some bare ground, because many native bees nest in the soil. Source: Gemini Bhalsod, "Consider pollinators during fall garden cleanup", University of Illinois Extension, 2023.
Once the ground freezes
- Mulch perennials that heave. Where perennials heave out of the ground in winter, cover their crowns with about four inches of mulch after the ground freezes, and pull it back in early spring as the top layer thaws. Source: Aaron Steil, "Fall Garden Tasks", Iowa State University Extension, 2026.
Each job uses its source's own timing. Enter your ZIP above for your first frost and hard freeze dates, from the nearest NOAA weather station, so you know when each step comes where you live.
Next questions: How do I protect plants from frost? · How do I overwinter dahlias and cannas? · When to plant tulips in my state · When to plant garlic in my state · When is my first frost? · Which native plants should I grow?
Your exact dates
Frost dates from the NOAA weather station nearest your ZIP, and the sowing and planting dates that follow from them for 34 vegetables and herbs.
What to do this week
The jobs that are open now for the crops you grow, the next one coming, and how many days are left before frost.
Local to you
The garden centres near your ZIP, and the plants native to your state that deer usually leave alone.
How it works
- 1
Enter your ZIP
Your zone, frost dates and this week's jobs appear at once.
- 2
Pick your crops
Choose a starter garden or your own crops, and the page shows only their jobs.
- 3
Get your garden report
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- A garden report by email once a month
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- The garden report twice a week: your crops' jobs, and a midweek hint on spotting and treating pests and problems
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Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. The page, your dates, the planting calendar and the monthly report are free, with no account. My Garden adds the twice-weekly report, frost alerts and your garden record for $3 a month or $30 a year.
Where do the dates come from?
Frost dates come from NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals at the weather station nearest your ZIP. Zones come from the 2023 USDA hardiness map. Planting times come from University of New Hampshire and Purdue extension guides. Every source is named at the bottom of the page.
Does it work where I live?
It covers every ZIP code in the continental US. In the few places that rarely freeze, such as southern Florida and coastal southern California, frost-based planting dates do not apply, and the page says so.
Will you fill my inbox?
The free report comes once a month. My Garden members choose twice a week. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe, and your address is used for nothing else. Privacy.
What does "reserve" mean?
My Garden opens in early 2027. Reserving costs nothing and needs no card. We email you before it opens, and the price you reserved is held for your first year.
See your garden's dates in ten seconds
How to do it
ZIP
How these dates are worked out
What are you growing?
Pick your crops and the page shows only their jobs. Your picks are remembered on this device.
Or choose crops one by one
Your garden this week
Your free monthly garden report
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My Garden sends the report for your crops every week, a midweek hint on spotting and treating pests and problems, and a frost alert when a freeze is forecast at your ZIP. It is $3 a month, or $30 a year.
My Garden
Your garden report twice a week, for $3 a month
- The jobs for your crops, every week, timed to ZIP
- A midweek hint on spotting and treating the pests and problems your crops meet at that point in the season
- A frost alert when a freeze is forecast at your ZIP
- Your own schedule and a record of your garden, season after season
Opens in early 2027. Nothing is charged today, and no card is needed.
Garden centres near you
Native plants for your garden
Planting calendar
Dates count from the cautious frost dates the extension guides assume: in spring, the date after which only one year in ten still has frost, and in fall, the date by which one year in ten has had it. Outside the Midwest, New England and New York they sit two weeks inside your typical dates. Crops marked ↻ do best sown or planted in several small batches through their window.
Plants deer usually leave alone
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Where the answers come from
- ZIP code locations: US Census Bureau, 2026 ZCTA Gazetteer and the 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file. Some PO-box ZIP codes are located with GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).
- Hardiness zones: the 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map by ZIP code, from the PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University.
- Frost dates: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, the date of the last spring and first fall 32 °F reading in half of years, at the nearest station that reports them. In the Midwest, New England and New York the page also gives the station's 1-in-10 dates, its 28 °F hard-freeze date, and its rain and snow.
- Soil: USDA NRCS Soil Survey (SSURGO) through Soil Data Access, the mapped soil at the ZIP code's centre point, for the Midwest, New England and New York.
- Planting times: UNH Cooperative Extension, Growing Vegetables: When to Plant, and Purdue Extension HO-186-W, Indiana Vegetable Planting Calendar.
- Deer resistance: Rutgers NJAES, Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance.
- Garden centres: © OpenStreetMap contributors, every US place tagged as a garden centre, with national big-box stores and hydroponics shops left out. The list is available under the Open Database License.
- Native plants: iNaturalist establishment data (plants it marks native in your state, with research-grade sightings there) and its flowering records by month. In the Midwest, New England and New York the list keeps natives that nurseries routinely sell (USDA PLANTS, which also gives heights) or that Rutgers rates for deer, and leaves out weeds and plants that harm people who touch them. Elsewhere it is limited to plants on the Rutgers deer-resistance list.
- Seed shops: the links in the report open each shop's own search page. Garden by Address earns nothing from them at present.
Weather varies from year to year and garden to garden, so treat every date as a guide and watch your local forecast.