One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 should be able to figure out when to plant strawberries by referring to the USDA zone info for Novato.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

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

Strawberries do well in cold which means that you can plant them much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Novato 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 strawberries and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your strawberries may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your strawberries indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Novato. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Novato is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Novato last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your strawberries in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Novato

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 Novato

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