Fall Garden Checklist: What to Do Before the First Frost (and What Can Wait)

The short answer: before your first frost, harvest anything tender, save the seeds and flowers you would normally toss, and get garlic and spring bulbs in the ground. After the frost, dig dahlias, clean up the beds (but not all of them), feed the compost pile, and mulch once the ground turns cold. Everything else can wait until spring.

First, find your frost date

This whole list runs on one date: your average first fall frost. It works anywhere, which is why I use it instead of a zone number.

Here in East Tennessee, zone 7B, our first frost usually lands in late October. Yours might be September or it might be December. If you are in the US, you can look up your zone by zip code on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, and your local extension office will have your frost dates. Outside the US, search your town and “average first frost date.” The timing below still works once you know it.

1. Harvest what the frost will take

Peppers, tomatoes, basil, squash, anything tender. One hard frost and they are done, so pick before it hits, even if that means picking green. Green tomatoes ripen on the counter. Peppers pickle beautifully or turn into hot sauce. Cherry tomatoes roast down into something you will be glad to have in January.

Go deeper: BombDiggity Blaze Hot Pepper Sauce · Roasted cherry tomatoes

2. Keep what you’d normally toss

Basil that has gone to flower is not finished. Those flowers make a vinegar that tastes like the whole summer. Zinnias and marigolds that have dried on the stem are next year’s garden, free, if you snip the heads and let them finish drying indoors.

Go deeper: Saving seeds: Gather Today, Bloom Tomorrow · The Complete Zinnia Guide · Basil in the Complete Herb Guide

3. Plant garlic

Garlic goes in the ground in fall and comes out the next summer. Aim for a few weeks after your first frost and before the ground freezes. For me that is mid-October to early November. Plant the biggest cloves, pointy end up, and mulch them in.

Go deeper: The Complete Garlic Guide

4. Get spring bulbs in the ground

Tulips, daffodils, alliums and crocus all need a cold season to bloom. Plant them once the soil cools, after your first frost or two, and any time before the ground freezes. Set a few aside to force indoors so something is blooming on your table in the middle of winter.

Go deeper: The Complete Paperwhite Guide

5. Sow a cover crop

Bare soil over winter washes away and loses what you built into it. A cover crop like crimson clover or winter rye holds it in place and feeds it while the beds rest. Sow clover four to six weeks before your first frost. Winter rye is forgiving and can go in later.

Go deeper: Resting the Soil, Resting Ourselves: A Fall Cover Crop Guide

6. Clean up, but not everything

Pull anything that was diseased this year and keep it out of the compost, because the problem will come right back next spring. Everything else can stay a while. Seed heads feed the birds all winter, and hollow stems are where native bees spend the cold months. Tidy the paths and leave some of the beds a little wild.

Go deeper: Chickens, Ducks and Geese in the Garden

7. Feed the compost pile

Fall is the best compost season of the year. Spent plants, fallen leaves and the coop bedding all go in, and by spring you have something dark and crumbly to put back on the beds. Shred the leaves if you can. They break down twice as fast.

Go deeper: Free Composting Guide: The Circle of Garden Life

8. Dig the dahlias after the first frost

Wait until frost turns the tops black, then cut the stems back and lift the tubers. Let them dry for a few days, brush off the soil, and store them somewhere cool and dark. In zone 8 and warmer, a thick layer of mulch is often enough to leave them in the ground.

Go deeper: The Complete Dahlia Guide

9. Close out the season

Mulch perennials once the ground is cold, not before, so you are keeping the cold in rather than the warmth. Drain the hoses and bring them in before the first hard freeze. Then write down what worked and what didn’t while you still remember. That list is the start of next year’s garden.

Go deeper: Benefits of Mulching with Hay · Winterizing to Avoid Water Messes · Spring Garden Planning Guide

The work you do before the season changes is the work that carries you through it. We wrote about that here.

Frequently asked questions

When should I start fall garden cleanup?

Start after your first frost has finished off the tender plants. Pull diseased plants right away, but leave healthy seed heads and hollow stems standing until spring for the birds and bees.

Should I cut back perennials in the fall?

Not all of them. Cut back anything that was diseased, and leave the rest standing through winter. The stems protect the crown, hold snow for insulation, and shelter overwintering insects.

When do I plant garlic?

Plant garlic a few weeks after your first fall frost and before the ground freezes. In zone 7 that is usually mid-October to early November.

When do I dig up dahlias for winter?

After the first frost blackens the foliage. Cut the stems back, lift the tubers, let them dry for a few days, and store them cool and dark. In zone 8 and warmer, heavy mulch is often enough to leave them in the ground.

Can I put diseased plants in the compost?

No. Most home compost piles don’t get hot enough to kill disease, and it will come back with next year’s garden. Bag or burn diseased plants instead.

What is the easiest cover crop for beginners?

Winter rye. It sprouts in cool weather, tolerates late planting, and holds the soil all winter. Crimson clover is a close second if you can sow it a little earlier.

What should I do in the garden before the first frost?

Harvest tender crops like peppers, tomatoes and basil, save seeds and basil flowers, plant garlic, and sow a cover crop. Spring bulbs go in around the first frost.

Wondering what to do next in the garden? Our Garden by the Season guide walks through what to plant and what to do each season, timed from your own frost dates.