Garden calendar: What to do when in your garden

These garden calendar pages outline seasonal jobs that you should do to keep your garden looking its best.

The guidelines are organized not by months, but by season – early and mid spring, summer, fall and getting ready for winter. The information here is most appropriate for North American hardiness zones 2 to 7.

garden calendar

How to use the garden calendar as a guide

The best way to use the seasonal lists below is to consult and print them at the beginning of each season as a reminder of the jobs you should ideally do at that time of year.

With some garden tasks, timing is vital: transplanting and pruning. Leaving either of those tasks too late can create problems. If you prune a lilac too late in the season, for instance, you will cut off the buds that produce next year’s flowers.

Likewise, you don’t want to move shrubs or divide perennials in the heat of midsummer because the stress of the heat, dryness and the loss of roots will set the plants back too much.

deadheading

During the season: Deadheading cosmos

Garden jobs season by season

Early spring – Cleaning-up after the winter

Mid-spring – What to do in the garden as everything starts to grow

Early summer – Jobs to do while your garden is still growing vigorously

Mid-summer – Gardening during high summer

Early fall – What to do as the season begins to wind down

Late fall – How to get your yard and garden ready for winter

Fall tree and shrub care – Important tips to help your garden trees and shrubs weather the winter

garden calendar