The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant garlic is to refer to the USDA zone info for Abilene.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Since garlic do well in cold you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Abilene 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 garlic and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garlic may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your garlic indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Abilene. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Abilene and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Abilene you get a frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your garlic in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Abilene

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 Abilene

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