The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of estimating when it's the best time to plant garden cress is to refer to the USDA zone info for Austin.

Planting Calendar for Garden cress

Frost tolerance for garden cress:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

You can not plant garden cress until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Austin is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garden cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your garden cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Austin. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Austin is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Austin you get surprised by a frost after May 15 be ready to protect your garden cress in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Austin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Austin

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