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.

You will be able to estimate when it's a good idea to plant garden orache by reviewing the USDA zone info for Portland.

Planting Calendar for Garden Orache

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

Since garden orache are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant garden orache in Portland 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 garden orache and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garden orache may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your garden orache indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Portland. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Portland is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Portland you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your garden orache in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portland

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 Portland

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