For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."
my online tool for finding your first frost date
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I know it's still summer, but this is the time to start thinking about winter... specifically, when the first frost is expected to arrive in your area. Where I live, in our crazy microclimate, we got our first unexpected frost a week ago! I saw that single frosty night coming in the forecast and covered all my tomatoes and cucumbers in time, so they're safe, but whoa... the countdown is on! If you're also in an area where a change in season means temperatures dropping into the 30s (Fahrenheit), it's wise to know when that happens so you can effectively plan for a fall or winter vegetable garden. (Yes, you can absolutely grow a thriving vegetable garden in freezing climates without a greenhouse—I do it every year in zone 5.) But knowing your first frost date isn't just necessary for fall planting. It's also helpful for succession planting (so you know when to sow your final round of seeds) and topping your tomato plants at the right time (so your plants can focus energy on ripening fruits and not on growing more vines). So here's what I've done:I've consolidated all the recent US Climate Normals data from the National Centers for Environmental Information (based on 15,000 weather stations across the US) and developed an online tool that looks up your frost dates, based on your exact location. It's a seamless process that allows you to find the frost dates for any location in the US, with risk probabilities at 28°F, 32°F, and 36°F and a summary of how many freeze-free days you can expect each year. You can even print the results and keep it with your seeds so you'll always have a handy reference at seed starting time! Bookmark it, share with a friend, and I hope it helps you in your gardening journey!
Seasonal tipsP.S. Use all my free online tools to help with your garden planning: |
Garden Betty
For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."