One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A common way of figuring out when you can plant four o' clock is to check out the USDA zone info for Shafter.

Planting Calendar for Four O' Clock

Frost tolerance for four o' clock:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant four o' clock until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant four o' clock in Shafter is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant four o' clock and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your four o' clock may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your four o' clock indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Shafter the average date of last frost happens on February 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Shafter is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Shafter there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to cover your four o' clock in the event of a late frost.

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.