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.

By using the USDA zone info for Florence it's possible to estimate when it's possible to plant chard.

Planting Calendar for Chard

Frost tolerance for chard:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Chard do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chard in Florence is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant chard and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your chard may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your chard indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Florence. You should expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Florence is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Florence last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your chard in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Florence

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Florence

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