One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

A way of figuring out when you can plant lettuce is to refer to the USDA zone info for Pelham.

Planting Calendar for Lettuce

Frost tolerance for lettuce:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Lettuce can survive in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant lettuce in Pelham 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 lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your lettuce may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your lettuce indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Pelham. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Pelham is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Pelham you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your lettuce if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Pelham

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Pelham

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