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.

You can estimate when it's a good idea to plant strawberries in Clearlake by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

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

Strawberries are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them much earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Clearlake 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. If you wait any later than that and your strawberries may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your strawberries indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Clearlake the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Clearlake and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Clearlake it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to cover your strawberries in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Clearlake

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 Clearlake

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