One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

One way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant garlic is to examine the USDA zone info for Albemarle.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Since garlic are very cold tolerant you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Albemarle 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. If you wait any later than that and your garlic may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garlic indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Albemarle the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Albemarle is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Albemarle you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your garlic in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Albemarle

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Albemarle

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