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.

In Douglas you can figure out when to plant melons by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Melons

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

It's a bad idea to plant melons until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant melons in Douglas 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 grow to maturity. Starting your melons 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 March 15 in Douglas. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Douglas is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Douglas you get a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your melons in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Douglas

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Douglas

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