One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant strawberries is to look at the USDA zone info for Safford.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

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

Since strawberries do well in cold you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Safford 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 strawberries and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your strawberries may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your strawberries indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Safford. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Safford is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Safford you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your strawberries if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Safford

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Safford

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