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 it's a good idea to plant romaine lettuce is to examine the USDA zone info for Shenandoah.

Planting Calendar for Romaine lettuce

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

You can plant romaine lettuce earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant romaine lettuce in Shenandoah 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 romaine lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your romaine lettuce may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your romaine lettuce indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Shenandoah. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Shenandoah and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Shenandoah it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your romaine lettuce if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Shenandoah

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Shenandoah

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