Fall Planting: What to Plant Before First Frost

The Short Answer

Many cool-season crops actually grow better in fall than in spring. Lettuce, spinach, kale, peas, broccoli, carrots, and beets can all be planted in mid-to-late summer for fall harvest. Garlic and spring-blooming bulbs (tulips, daffodils, crocuses) are planted in fall for next year. Use our Planting Calendar Generator to see what to plant each month in your zone.

Why Fall Gardens Are Underrated

Most gardeners think of gardening as a spring-to-summer activity. But fall growing has real advantages. Pest pressure drops dramatically as temperatures cool — many of the beetles, caterpillars, and aphids that plague summer gardens are gone. Disease pressure drops too, because the fungal diseases that thrive in hot, humid conditions slow down in cool weather.

Cool-season crops like lettuce and spinach, which bolt (go to seed) quickly in spring heat, grow slowly and steadily in the gradually cooling fall temperatures. The flavor of many fall-harvested crops is actually superior — carrots, beets, kale, and Brussels sprouts all develop more sugars after exposure to light frost.

Timing Is Different

The key difference between spring and fall planting: in spring, conditions are getting warmer and days are getting longer. In fall, conditions are getting cooler and days are getting shorter. Plants grow more slowly as fall progresses.

This means you need to count backward from your first frost date. Take the days-to-maturity number on the seed packet, add 14 days (the "fall factor" to account for slowing growth), and count backward from your first frost date. That's your planting date.

For example: if your first frost is October 15 and you want to grow lettuce (45 days to maturity), you'd plant by August 17 at the latest (45 + 14 = 59 days before frost).

Fall-Planted Spring Crops

Some crops are planted in fall but don't mature until the following spring or summer. Garlic is the classic example — plant individual cloves 4-6 weeks before your ground freezes in fall, and harvest full bulbs the following June or July.

Spring-blooming bulbs — tulips, daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths — need to be planted in fall because they require 12-14 weeks of cold temperatures below 40°F to trigger their spring bloom. Plant them 6-8 weeks before your first hard frost.

What to Plant When

Late summer (6-8 weeks before first frost): Lettuce, spinach, kale, radishes, turnips, arugula, cilantro. Direct sow these.

Early fall (4-6 weeks before first frost): Garlic cloves, shallots. These root in fall, go dormant in winter, and grow in spring.

Mid-fall (6-8 weeks before ground freezes): Tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and other spring bulbs.

Late fall: Mulch garlic beds. Cover any remaining fall greens with row cover to extend the harvest into early winter.