If you don’t know what zone your garden is in, find your USDA hardiness zone here. Enter the code on the security pop-up (it is case-sensitive), then enter your ZIP Code to see your zone. If you click where you live, a window will pop up showing your exact zone info.
What to Do In Your Garden This Month
Zones 1 – 4
- Transplant the seedlings you started last month of broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower.
- Sow a couple of fast-growing fall vegetables such as beets, broccoli, kale, lettuce, radishes, green onions, spinach, and Swiss chard. If you don’t have a cold frame, consider building one to extend your fresh vegetable production.
- Your vegetable garden probably requires daily harvesting now. Cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers should be picked as soon as the fruits are ready. This ensures the best flavor while making way for new fruits and avoids attracting pests to over-ripe fruit.
- Inspect your plants daily for any insect or disease damage; treat affected plants immediately. A good shot of water spray to knock them off is often sufficient.
- Begin harvesting and drying culinary herbs for this winter’s use. Most herbs have a more concentrated flavor if they are harvested before flowering. Frequent harvesting encourages fresh, new growth and keeps them growing longer. To dry, spread bunches of mature leaves out or use a dehydrator until they are crispy dry, then store in an air-tight container.
- If you love the flavor of fresh herbs, start a couple of your favorites like parsley, dill, basil, or oregano in pots now. Use large pots, 8 – 12 inches in diameter, to avoid bound roots and have enough to cook with.
- Keep on top of weeds to prevent them from flowering and setting seed. Pulling is the most time intensive but using a hula hoe or flaming the weeds are faster alternatives.
- Remove any diseased or dead leaves or foliage so it doesn’t get lost in the fall residue. Dispose of diseased leaves or plants, don’t compost them. You can compost dead materials.
- Make sure your mulch hasn’t decomposed too much, exposing bare soil around your plants – add more as needed. Organic mulches will decompose over the season, protecting and feeding the soil, you don’t want any patches of bare soil at the end of the season which invites weeds.
- Spread a layer of aged compost around your highest producing plants like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant to give them extra nutrition for the final growth phase. This also feeds the soil.
- Pinch out the tops of tomato plants to concentrate the growth into developing fruit. If you’ve got a lot of flowers just starting to bloom, remove them as well.
- Pinch the tips off of runner beans to encourage maturing beans to develop.
Zones 5 – 6
- Your vegetable garden probably requires daily harvesting now. Cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers should be picked as soon as the fruits are ready. This ensures the best flavor while making way for new fruits and avoids attracting pests to over-ripe fruit.
- Inspect your plants daily for any insect or disease damage; treat affected plants immediately. A good shot of water spray to knock them off is often sufficient.
- Begin harvesting and drying culinary herbs for this winter’s use. Most herbs have a more concentrated flavor if they are harvested before flowering. Frequent harvesting encourages fresh, new growth and keeps them growing longer. To dry, spread bunches of mature leaves out or use a dehydrator until they are crispy dry, then store in an air-tight container.
- Sow a couple of fast-growing fall vegetables such as beets, broccoli, collards, kale, lettuce, radishes, green onions, spinach, and Swiss chard. If you don’t have a cold frame, consider building one to extend your fresh vegetable production.
- There’s still time for a planting of short-season green beans, cabbage, and peas if you can provide some frost protection as they mature.
- Water your compost during dry weather to keep it active. Keep it moist but not wet.
- As your vegetable finish producing and start to dry up, remove them and compost healthy residue but put any diseased plant material in the garbage.
- Once your melon vines have set as many fruits as you want, remove any new blossoms. This concentrates energy and nutrition into growing superb melons. Protect the ripening melons from ground rot and pests with a cushion of cardboard. This also keeps the bottom of the melon from turning quite so yellow.
- Give your hard-working, high-producing vegetables a snack of milk and molasses, fish emulsion or kelp/seaweed emulsion for a boost. These are some of the least expensive but most effective fertilizers you can find!
- Continue pinching off flower buds from your basil for a continual supply of leaves. Make small batches of pesto and freeze for a delicious reminder of summer this winter.
Zones 7 – 8
- The best time to work in the garden is early morning or late in the day to avoid the heat.
- Your vegetable garden probably requires daily harvesting now. Cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers should be picked as soon as the fruits are ready. This ensures the best flavor while making way for new fruits and avoids attracting pests to over-ripe fruit.
- Give your hard-working, high-producing vegetables a snack of milk and molasses, fish emulsion or kelp/seaweed emulsion for a boost. These are some of the least expensive but most effective fertilizers you can find!
- As vegetable plants stop producing, remove them to eliminate opportunities for pests and diseases. Re-plant that spot with a cool-season vegetable.
- Continue watching for caterpillars, hornworms, aphids, spider mites, and other pest insects; treating them immediately. A good shot of water spray to knock them off is often sufficient.
- Begin harvesting and drying culinary herbs for this winter’s use. Most herbs have a more concentrated flavor if they are harvested before flowering. Frequent harvesting encourages fresh, new growth and keeps them growing longer. To dry, spread bunches of mature leaves out or use a dehydrator until they are crispy dry, then store in an air-tight container.
- Now is an excellent time to start planting your fall vegetable garden. Good choices are beets, broccoli, collards, kale, lettuce, radishes, green onions, spinach, and Swiss chard. Green beans, cabbage, and peas will also do well if you have frost protection available. As the weather cools off, they will grow better and become sweeter.
- Water your compost during dry weather to keep it active. Keep it moist but not wet.
- Keep on top of your weeds; don’t let them go to seed and create much more work next season.
- Check the level of mulch in the garden, add if needed to maintain a couple of inches thick for moisture conservation. This also keeps the plant roots cooler with less stress and results in more production.
- Once your melon vines have set as many fruits as you want, remove any new blossoms. This concentrates energy and nutrition into growing superb melons. Protect the ripening melons from ground rot and pests with a cushion of cardboard. This also keeps the bottom of the melon from turning quite so yellow.
- Continue pinching off flower buds from your basil for a continual supply of leaves. Make small batches of pesto and freeze for a delicious reminder of summer this winter.
Zones 9 – 10
- If you get frost in your area, calculate your expected first frost date to see if you have time to plant more crops. For each vegetable – take the number of days to maturity, add 18 days, then subtract that from the remaining days to your first frost. For example – 60 days to maturity for baby carrots + 18 days = 78 days. If you have more than 80 days until your first frost date, you can plant baby carrots and get a good harvest before frost. If you can provide frost protection, that can add 3 weeks or more to your growing season!
- Prepare your soil for fall planting by cleaning up any leftover debris and working aged compost and supplemental fertilizer in.
- Start cool-season plants inside of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, and onions to set out early next month.