One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Cottage Grove can be reffered to in order to estimate when it's possible to plant pumpkins.

Planting Calendar for Pumpkins

Frost tolerance for pumpkins:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's probably a bad idea to plant pumpkins until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant pumpkins in Cottage Grove is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant pumpkins and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your pumpkins may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pumpkins indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Cottage Grove the average date of last frost happens on March 15. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Cottage Grove may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Cottage Grove you get a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your pumpkins if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cottage Grove

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Cottage Grove

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Cottage Grove.