Cool weather · fresh opportunity
Fall Planting Guide
Build a productive fall garden with zone-adjusted roots, greens, brassicas, peas, and season-extending strategies.
Planting finder for Zones 1A–13B
What can I plant this fall?
Select your USDA zone to see broad seasonal windows for starting indoors, direct sowing, and transplanting or planting.
Your fall planting overview
Zone 6B Fall Planting Guide
Fall crops must establish before short days sharply slow growth. Count backward from local frost and expected harvest dates.
Go beyond the zone
Open your state vegetable planting calendar
State calendars account for regional frost patterns, elevation, heat, and local growing seasons that the USDA hardiness zone alone cannot describe.
Use the results well
Four checks before seed meets soil
Average dates are guides. Watch the forecast and protect tender crops from late or early freezes.
Warm-season seeds such as beans, cucumbers, and melons can rot or stall in cold, wet soil.
For late planting, count backward from frost and add time for slower growth under shortening days.
Use cold-tolerant, fast varieties in shoulder seasons and heat-tolerant choices for summer successions.
Modeled near 2½ inches deep
Check your current soil temperature
Enter a U.S. ZIP code for a current modeled reading, then confirm the seedbed itself with a garden soil thermometer.
Prepare for the season
Fall garden preparation
Use this checklist to prepare soil, fertility, water, mulch, pest management, and season protection before the work becomes urgent.
Rebuild harvested beds
Remove spent crops and weeds, then add finished compost where the next crop and soil test justify it.
Avoid late heavy feeding
Use modest, targeted fertility. Excess nitrogen can produce tender growth and delay hardening before cold weather.
Mulch for steady soil
Mulch garlic and established cold-hardy crops after the soil cools; avoid burying crowns or encouraging rodents.
Reset pest pressure
Dispose of diseased residue appropriately, rotate crop families, and keep brassica and slug scouting active.
Prepare frost protection
Inspect hoops, row cover, clips, cold frames, and weights before the first urgent cold-night forecast.
Plant soil cover
Where food crops are finished, sow a locally suitable cover crop or apply protective mulch to reduce erosion and weeds.
Protect the bed after harvest
Fall cover crops
Cover crops turn empty fall beds into working soil. Choose the crop by your goal, available growing time, winter conditions, and how you plan to terminate it.
Living roots and residue reduce erosion, crusting, and nutrient loss during fall and winter weather.
A quick, dense stand competes for light and space before annual weeds establish and set seed.
Roots and top growth feed soil organisms and contribute residue when the crop is terminated.
Grasses and brassicas can take up nutrients that might otherwise move below the active root zone.
Legumes can add biologically fixed nitrogen, though release occurs after residue decomposes.
Different root systems help create channels, aggregate soil, and keep living roots active longer.
Plant promptly: most cover crops need time to establish before cold and short days slow growth. Follow the product’s regional seeding window and rate. Decide how and when the stand will be terminated before sowing.
Browse Fall Cover-Crop SeedImportant timing note
A zone is not a planting date
The USDA map is based on average annual extreme minimum winter temperature and is primarily a perennial-hardiness tool. Two gardens in the same zone can have different frost dates, rainfall, soil temperature, elevation, and summer heat. Use the zone finder for orientation, then refine the plan with your state calendar and current conditions.
Planning approach informed by the 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, University of Maryland Extension vegetable timing guidance, and University of Minnesota Extension crop-planning guidance.