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.

A common way of figuring out when you can plant sweet peas is to check out the USDA zone info for Santa Fe.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Peas

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

Sweet Peas can survive in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

Last Frost Date

In Santa Fe the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Fe is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Fe last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your sweet peas if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Fe

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 Santa Fe

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Fe.