One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's the best time to plant sweet peas is to look at the USDA zone info for Avenal.

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.

Since sweet peas are barely cold tolerant you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant sweet peas in Avenal 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 sweet peas and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sweet peas may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your sweet peas indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Avenal. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Avenal is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Avenal last frost occurs after February 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your sweet peas if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Avenal

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Avenal

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