Home & garden, state by state
Everything we have worked out for Delaware: what to plant and when, which varieties finish in time, the pests that actually turn up here, and the jobs that pay off month by month. We also cover the rest of the property, from lawns and soil to home care and energy, because a garden rarely stops at the vegetable bed.
The numbers first, because everything else follows from them. Measured at the weather station in Wilmington, the last spring freeze runs April 3 to April 14 and the first fall freeze runs October 26 to November 7, USDA zones 7a-8a, 3,937 growing degree days in the year.
Garlic does well: 21.8 weeks below 40 °F, comfortably past the six it needs to form a proper head.
Elsewhere on the property in Delaware: the pests that turn up here.
Figures from NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals. A state is not one climate: elevation, a large lake or the coast can move these dates by two weeks either way, so check your own county with the extension service before you spend money.
Delaware has no statewide residential code, so basement permits, ceiling height minimums and egress window rules are set county by county, not by the state.
Delaware gardeners can plant roses from mid-March through early April if working with dormant bare-root stock, or wait until after the last frost (April…
Delaware gardeners can plant hydrangeas in spring once the last frost risk has passed, typically after mid-April near Wilmington, or in early fall before…
The short answer: aim to overseed cool-season lawns in Delaware between late August and mid-September, working backward from the first fall frost so…
Only two of the nine pests Delaware’s extension service documents actually target pepper plants: tomato hornworm and, to a lesser extent, Colorado potato…
None of the nine pest species documented by University of Delaware Cooperative Extension in home vegetable gardens actually target spinach.
Delaware gardeners searching for an onion pest list will come up short: University of Delaware Cooperative Extension does not document a single insect…
Search “corn pests Delaware” and you’ll find plenty of generic lists built for the Midwest, full of insects that never show up here.
Delaware’s last spring frost typically falls between April 3 and April 14, and the first fall frost arrives between October 26 and November 7, based on…
Four insects on Delaware’s documented pest list feed on pumpkin: cucumber beetles, squash bug, squash vine borer, and squash beetle.