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.

A way of estimating when it's the best time to plant chard is to examine the USDA zone info for Brownsville.

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 tells us that you can get them planted earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant chard in Brownsville 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else 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 few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Brownsville the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Brownsville is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Brownsville last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your chard in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Brownsville

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 Brownsville

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