Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. 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 it's the best time to plant garlic is to check out the USDA zone info for Fairfax.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

You can plant garlic earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Fairfax 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your garlic indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Fairfax. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Fairfax is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Fairfax you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your garlic in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fairfax

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 Fairfax

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