One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

One way of determining when it's the best time to plant chard is to use the USDA zone info for Barnwell.

Planting Calendar for Chard

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

Since chard are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant chard in Barnwell 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 chard and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your chard may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your chard indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Barnwell the average date of last frost happens on March 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Barnwell is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Barnwell last frost occurs after March 15 so always be ready to protect your chard if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Barnwell

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Barnwell

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