Gardening in Memphis
Tennessee · Gulf Coast & Mississippi Lowlands · hardiness zone 8a
Now
28°C · Partly cloudy
Today
35° / 24°
Soil 6 cm
30°C
First frost
~62 days (Nov 15)
Above about 32 °C tomatoes drop their flowers and lettuce turns bitter.
- Green lacewingbest now — Adults fly at dusk and through the night; the larvae hunt around the clock and do the real work.
- Tomato hornwormbest now — Feeding on the upper leaves, though it is easiest to find at dusk with a UV torch — it glows.
In the garden now · September
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out near Memphis, Tennessee in September. Most of them are on your side — learn the few that aren't before you reach for anything.
PollinatorMay–OctMonarch butterfly
Danaus plexippus
Orange with heavy black veins and a white-spotted black border. The caterpillar is banded yellow, white and black.
What it does in the garden →Photo: Christine Young · CC BY 4.0
PollinatorMar–OctHoney bee
Apis mellifera
Golden-brown, banded, furry thorax, and pollen packed onto the hind legs in visible baskets.
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
Overhead · Memphis, Tennessee
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 25m of light
Sunrise
06:43
Solar noon
12:55
Sunset
19:07
A month from now the day will be 1h 06m shorter. Enough light for steady growth.
Right now · Memphis, Tennessee
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.
- Quiet right now
Frost
238 frost-free days
Typically Mar 22 to Nov 15 here. Coldest night in the next week: 22.6 °C.
The hard edge of the growing season. Ice inside a leaf ruptures its cells — one night ends a tomato and sweetens a parsnip.
- Worth watching
Soil warmth
30.0 °C
Hot soil: germination drops off above 30 °C and roots slow. Mulch, shade the row, and sow late in the day.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
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