One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant garden cress is to examine the USDA zone info for Lakeland.

Planting Calendar for Garden cress

Frost tolerance for garden cress:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Garden cress require warm weather which tells us that it is necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Lakeland 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 garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garden cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your garden cress indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Lakeland the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Lakeland is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Lakeland there is a last frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your garden cress in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lakeland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Lakeland

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