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

By looking at the USDA zone info for Portales you will be able to determine when you can plant garlic.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Garlic do well in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Portales 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. Any later than that and your garlic may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your garlic indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Portales. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Portales is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Portales you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your garlic if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portales

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Portales

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