Gardening in Boise
Idaho · Deserts & Dry Basins · hardiness zone 7a
Now
20°C · Clear
Today
20° / 10°
Soil 6 cm
17°C
First frost
~38 days (Oct 22)
Peak photosynthesis and peak water loss. Beds dry fast and transplants sulk.
In the garden now · September
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out near Boise, Idaho in September. Most of them are on your side — learn the few that aren't before you reach for anything.
PollinatorMar–OctHoney bee
Apis mellifera
Golden-brown, banded, furry thorax, and pollen packed onto the hind legs in visible baskets.
What it does in the garden →
PollinatorMar–OctBumble bees
Bombus spp.
Big, round and very furry, in black with yellow, orange or white bands.
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
Overhead · Boise, Idaho
The sky over the garden
The two clocks nothing on the ground can argue with: the length of the day, and the phase of the moon.
The sun
12h 31m of light
Sunrise
07:24
Solar noon
13:40
Sunset
19:55
A month from now the day will be 1h 28m shorter. Enough light for steady growth.
Right now · Boise, Idaho
Forces at work
Nothing here is a guess. Each of these is read from this week's forecast and this location's climate record, and each one is pushing the season one way or the other.
- Worth watching
Frost
38 days
Average first fall frost is around Oct 22. Nothing you sow now will finish unless it beats that.
The hard edge of the growing season. Ice inside a leaf ruptures its cells — one night ends a tomato and sweetens a parsnip.
- Working for you
Soil warmth
17.2 °C
Warm enough for beans, corn, squash, cucumber and transplanted tomato and pepper. Roots run hard at this temperature.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
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