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.

The first opportunity to plant decorative kale in Lafayette should be figured out by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Decorative Kale

Frost tolerance for decorative kale:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Decorative Kale do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant decorative kale in Lafayette is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant decorative kale and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your decorative kale may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your decorative kale indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Lafayette. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lafayette may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Lafayette it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your decorative kale if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lafayette

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°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 -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Lafayette

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