One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

A common way of figuring out when it's possible to plant carrots is to check out the USDA zone info for Virginia.

Planting Calendar for Carrots

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

Carrots do ok in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant carrots in Virginia 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 carrots and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your carrots may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your carrots indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Virginia the average date of last frost happens on May 15. It might get as low as -35°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Virginia may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Virginia there is a last frost after May 15 be ready to cover your carrots if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Virginia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 3b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-35°F
Highest Expected Low	-30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -30°F.

Plants to Grow in Virginia

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