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 way of estimating when it's possible to plant melons is to examine the USDA zone info for Covington.

Planting Calendar for Melons

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

Since melons are not cold tolerant you really should wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant melons in Covington 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 melons and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your melons may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your melons indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Covington. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Covington is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Covington you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your melons in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Covington

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Covington

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