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.

The USDA zone info for Granite Falls can be reffered to in order to determine when it's possible to plant chard.

Planting Calendar for Chard

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

Chard are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant chard in Granite Falls 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 chard and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your chard may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your chard indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Granite Falls. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Granite Falls may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Granite Falls there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your chard in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Granite Falls

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 Granite Falls

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Granite Falls.