Grow It Here
A gardening guide made for Lethbridge and southern Alberta: our short season, our wind, our chinooks and our clay. What grows well here, when to plant it, and how to keep it alive when the weather has other ideas.
🌡️ The garden right now
Frost watch for tonight
Checking tonight's forecast…
Current readings from our West Lethbridge station. Forecast low and alerts from Environment and Climate Change Canada for Lethbridge. Low spots, the river valley and coulee bottoms can be several degrees colder.
Quick checks: Is it safe to plant out yet? · Frost dates and protection · Growing degree days this season · 7-day forecast
Why a garden guide on a weather site?
Because in Lethbridge, the weather decides almost everything in the garden. A plant that thrives in Vancouver or Ontario can be killed here by a June frost, shredded by a July hailstorm, dried out by a week of 60 km/h wind, or tricked into budding by a February chinook. Most gardening books and websites are written for somewhere else. This one is written for here, and it’s tied to our own West Lethbridge weather station, so the advice comes with real local numbers.
Everything in this section sticks to natural methods: no sprays and no product pitches. Just what works in our climate.
Start here
Our growing conditions
Zone, climate, wind, chinooks, hail, soil and water: what makes gardening here different, and what to do about each.
Frost dates and frost warnings
When it’s really safe to plant, what a frost advisory means, and how to save your plants on a cold night.
Starting seeds indoors
When to start each crop for a Lethbridge spring, how to grow sturdy seedlings, and how to move them outside without losing them.
New to gardening? Your first season in five steps
- Pick a spot and start small. Choose the sunniest place you have (six hours or more of sun), out of the worst of the west wind. One bed about 1 by 3 metres, or a few big pots, is plenty for a first year.
- Get the soil ready in late April or May. Wait until a handful of soil crumbles instead of sticking, then dig in a few centimetres of compost. More on soil
- Sow the easy, hardy crops in early May. Peas, lettuce, spinach, radishes and carrots go straight into the ground and can take a light frost. What grows well here
- Plant the tender ones in late May or early June. Buy or grow tomato and pepper plants, harden them off for a week, and plant out when the plant-out check says go. Keep an old sheet handy for a cold night. Frost watch
- Through the summer: water deeply in the morning a couple of times a week, mulch to hold the moisture, pull weeds while they’re small, and throw a cover over the garden when a hailstorm is coming. Month-by-month calendar
The whole guide
Know your conditions
- Our growing conditions
- Frost dates, frost warnings and protecting plants
- Growing degree days: the heat your garden banks
- Soil, compost and watering
Plant and grow
- Starting seeds indoors and moving them out
- Vegetables that do well here
- Fruit for southern Alberta
- Trees and shrubs
- Perennials and annuals
- Xeriscaping and water-wise yards
Care and problems
- Companion planting: what works and what’s folklore
- Natural weed control
- Pests, hail and other problems
For everyone
- No yard? Community gardens and container growing
- Growing with kids: where our food comes from
- Month-by-month Lethbridge garden calendar
Live helpers
Grow with your neighbours
Lethbridge & District Horticultural Society
Local gardeners have been growing, showing and sharing plants here for generations. The society runs talks, shows and plant exchanges, where divisions from established gardens find new homes. If you want advice from people who garden in this exact climate, this is where to find them.
Seedy Saturday
Every spring, Environment Lethbridge hosts Seedy Saturday at the downtown library: a free seed swap with workshops and local exhibitors, timed just right for starting seeds indoors.
No yard? No problem
Lethbridge has community gardens where you can rent a plot for the season, and plenty of vegetables and flowers grow happily in pots on a balcony. Here’s how to get started.
Our West Lethbridge station sits at 913 m on the west side of the coulees. Check tonight’s frost watch, see whether it’s safe to plant out, and follow this season’s growing degree days. Full readings and the forecast are on the forecast page.
Gardening advice here is general information for the Lethbridge area. Your own yard may be warmer, colder, windier or more sheltered; watch it for a season and you’ll learn its quirks.