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 Umatilla you can estimate when it's possible to plant chives by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chives

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

You can plant chives quite a bit earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant chives in Umatilla 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 chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your chives may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your chives indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Umatilla. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Umatilla and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Umatilla last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your chives if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Umatilla

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Umatilla

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