When to Plant Parsley in Palo Alto, CA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Palo Alto should be reffered to in order to determine when it's a good idea to plant parsley.


Planting Calendar for Parsley

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

Parsley are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can plant them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant parsley
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant parsley
Probably not a good time to plant parsley

The earliest that you can plant parsley in Palo Alto 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 parsley and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your parsley may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your parsley indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Palo Alto and it is different every year. Half of the time in Palo Alto there is a last frost after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your parsley in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Palo Alto

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 Low25°F
Highest Expected Low30°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 Palo Alto

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Palo Alto.