Seasonal Garden Tasks

Gardening is mostly timing, and timing depends on where you live. This category is a season-by-season guide to what to do and when: starting seeds indoors ahead of your last frost, hardening off seedlings, summer pruning and watering, fall planting and cleanup, and bringing herbs inside for winter. We tie tasks to your USDA hardiness zone and local frost dates rather than calendar months, so the advice works in Zone 5 as well as Zone 9. Monthly checklists help you stay a step ahead, especially in a small garden where every pot counts.