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.

One way of estimating when it's possible to plant cabbage is to examine the USDA zone info for Raleigh.

Planting Calendar for Cabbage

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

You can plant cabbage a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cabbage in Raleigh 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 cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your cabbage may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Raleigh. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Raleigh and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Raleigh you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your cabbage in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Raleigh

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 Raleigh

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