One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant kale is to refer to the USDA zone info for Highland.

Planting Calendar for Kale

Frost tolerance for kale:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since kale are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant kale in Highland 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 kale and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your kale may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your kale indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Highland the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Highland is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Highland last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your kale in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Highland

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 Highland

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