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.

The first opportunity to plant garden cress in Richmond should be estimated by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Garden cress

Frost tolerance for garden cress:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Since garden cress do not do well in cold weather you must wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Richmond 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 garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garden cress may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your garden cress indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in Richmond. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Richmond and it is different every year. Half of the time in Richmond you get surprised by a frost after January 31 so always be ready to protect your garden cress if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Richmond

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Richmond

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