Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of getting a good idea when to plant portulaca is to look at the USDA zone info for South Lake Tahoe.

Planting Calendar for Portulaca

Frost tolerance for portulaca:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

You can not plant portulaca until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant portulaca in South Lake Tahoe is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant portulaca and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your portulaca may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your portulaca indoors.

Last Frost Date

In South Lake Tahoe the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for South Lake Tahoe may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in South Lake Tahoe it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your portulaca in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for South Lake Tahoe

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in South Lake Tahoe

You may be interested in your other planting guides for South Lake Tahoe.