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.

In Shafter you can determine when it's a good idea to plant basket of gold by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Basket of Gold

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

Basket of Gold do well in cold which means that you can get them planted much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant basket of gold in Shafter 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 basket of gold and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your basket of gold may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your basket of gold 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 February 15 in Shafter. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Shafter may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Shafter last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to cover your basket of gold in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Shafter

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Shafter

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