Gardening in Yellowknife
Northwest Territories · Boreal North & Taiga · hardiness zone 2b
Now
10°C · Overcast
Today
10° / 7°
Soil 6 cm
8°C
First frost
~11 days (Sep 25)
The kindest day for transplanting there is, and the safest for sowing.
In the garden now · September
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories 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 · Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
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 59m of light
Sunrise
07:03
Solar noon
13:32
Sunset
20:02
A month from now the day will be 2h 59m shorter. Enough light for steady growth.
Right now · Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
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
11 days
Average first fall frost is around Sep 25. 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.
- Worth watching
Soil warmth
8.4 °C
Cool-season seed only — peas, spinach, radish, fava, and the first lettuce. Beans and corn will sulk.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
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