One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

You should be able to determine when it's a good idea to plant sweet peas by using the USDA zone info for Decatur.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Peas

Frost tolerance for sweet peas:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Sweet Peas tend to make it in mild cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant sweet peas in Decatur is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant sweet peas and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your sweet peas may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sweet peas indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Decatur. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Decatur and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Decatur you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your sweet peas if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Decatur

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 Decatur

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