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

In Ruidoso you can determine when it's a good idea to plant clover by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Clover

Frost tolerance for clover:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since clover are barely cold tolerant you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant clover in Ruidoso is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant clover and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your clover may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your clover indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Ruidoso. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ruidoso is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Ruidoso there is a last frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your clover in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ruidoso

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

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

Plants to Grow in Ruidoso

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