One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By reviewing the USDA zone info for Athens it's a good idea to estimate when to plant garlic.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

Frost tolerance for garlic:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since garlic do well in cold you can plant them earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Athens is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant garlic and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your garlic may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your garlic indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Athens. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Athens is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Athens it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your garlic if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Athens

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Athens

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Athens.