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.

A common way of determining when to plant fountain grass is to consult the USDA zone info for Sweetwater.

Planting Calendar for Fountain Grass

Frost tolerance for fountain grass:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Fountain Grass do ok in mild cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant fountain grass in Sweetwater is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant fountain grass and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your fountain grass may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your fountain grass 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 Sweetwater. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Sweetwater is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Sweetwater you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your fountain grass if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sweetwater

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Sweetwater

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