What an alert looks like
Each alert names the night, the forecast low for your ZIP, and a short checklist: cover or bring in the tender plants (tomatoes, peppers, basil, cucurbits), harvest anything ripe that frost would ruin, and leave the hardy crops alone — kale, spinach, carrots, and brassicas take light frost as a flavor upgrade. It's sent in the afternoon, while there's daylight to act.
Built for the two seasons that matter
Fall's first frost ends the tender garden — often weeks before people expect it (your city's average date is the baseline, but individual years swing widely). Spring's last frost ambushes newly set-out transplants the same way. The alert logic watches for exactly those transitions rather than nagging you all winter.
Frequently asked questions
How do the frost alerts work?
Every afternoon our system checks the National Weather Service forecast for your ZIP code. When a night at or below 36°F follows a milder spell — the surprise-frost pattern that catches gardens out — you get an email that evening, with enough daylight left to act.
Why 36°F and not 32°F?
Frost forms on plants before the air officially hits freezing: leaves radiate heat and run colder than the thermometer, and low spots pool cold air. A 36°F forecast low is the practical threshold where tender plants are at risk — waiting for a forecast of 32°F means learning about frost from your blackened basil.
How often will you email me?
Only when frost newly threatens — alerts fire on the transition from milder weather to a frost-risk night, with a three-day cooldown so a cold week doesn’t fill your inbox. In practice that’s a handful of emails a year, concentrated in spring and fall.
What happens after I sign up?
You’ll get one confirmation email — click the link to activate alerts (we never add an address that hasn’t confirmed). Every alert includes a one-click unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing removes your address immediately.
What do you do with my email address?
Store it for frost alerts, and nothing else. No newsletters unless you separately opt in, no selling or sharing, ever. Details in the privacy policy.