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.

A common way of estimating when it's the best time to plant carrots is to check out the USDA zone info for Norfolk.

Planting Calendar for Carrots

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

Since carrots are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Norfolk. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Norfolk is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Norfolk you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your carrots in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Norfolk

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Norfolk

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