One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant garlic is to use the USDA zone info for Clayton.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Garlic do ok in a bit of cold which means that you can plant them much earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

The last month that you can plant garlic and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your garlic may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your garlic indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Clayton. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Clayton is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Clayton there is a last frost after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your garlic if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Clayton

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 Clayton

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