Garden & Grow · 🍂 Autumn
What to do before the first frost
A short evening's work that saves a lot of disappointment.
Free · 30 min · 3 min read
The first frost rarely arrives on the date you expect. Doing the small jobs a week early costs nothing; doing them a week late can cost you a summer's growing.
Usually worth doing
- Bring tender pot plants somewhere sheltered, or against a house wall
- Pick the last of anything still fruiting
- Wrap vulnerable pots — terracotta can crack in a hard freeze
- Have fleece or an old sheet somewhere you can find it in the dark
- Raise pots off the ground so they don't sit in freezing water
What doesn't need you
Most hardy shrubs, trees and bulbs are entirely fine. Frost is part of their year.
A note on timing
Timing can vary depending on where you live and local conditions — in cooler parts of the UK things often happen a little later.
Make it yours
Kept ideas live in My Keeps, keep their category and season, and can be planned, lived and remembered later.
My SZN editorial inspiration — our own seasonal idea, not a listing for a verified external event.
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