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.

The best time to plant arabis in Taos should be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Arabis

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

Arabis are very cold tolerant which means that you can get them planted much earlier than more sensitive plants.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Taos. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Taos is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Taos you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your arabis if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Taos

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Taos

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