One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Hammond can be used to determine when it's the best time to plant petunias.

Planting Calendar for Petunias

Frost tolerance for petunias:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Petunias are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant petunias in Hammond is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant petunias and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your petunias may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your petunias indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Hammond is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Hammond you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your petunias if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hammond

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 Hammond

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