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.

A way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant tomatos is to check out the USDA zone info for Winter Garden.

Planting Calendar for Tomatos

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

You can not plant tomatos until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant tomatos in Winter Garden 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 tomatos and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your tomatos may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your tomatos indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Winter Garden. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Winter Garden is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Winter Garden it frosts late in the year after February 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your tomatos if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Winter Garden

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 Winter Garden

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Winter Garden.