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 determining when it's possible to plant chard is to look at the USDA zone info for South El Monte.

Planting Calendar for Chard

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

Since chard do well in moderate cold you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant chard in South El Monte 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 chard and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your chard may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your chard indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on January 31 in South El Monte. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Since the USDA zone info for South El Monte may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in South El Monte there is a last frost after January 31 so be sure to be ready to protect your chard in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for South El Monte

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 South El Monte

You may be interested in your other planting guides for South El Monte.