The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. 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 a good idea to plant garlic is to refer to the USDA zone info for Baton Rouge.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

Frost tolerance for garlic:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Garlic do well in cold which means that you can start planting them much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Baton Rouge 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 garlic and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your garlic may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your garlic indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Baton Rouge. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Baton Rouge may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Baton Rouge there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to cover your garlic in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Baton Rouge

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 Baton Rouge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Baton Rouge.