One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the 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 getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant peas is to refer to the USDA zone info for Richmond.

Planting Calendar for Peas

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

You can plant peas quite a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant peas in Richmond 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 peas and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your peas may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your peas indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on January 31 in Richmond. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Richmond is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Richmond it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to protect your peas in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.