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 figuring out when you can plant purslane is to check out the USDA zone info for Big Spring.

Planting Calendar for Purslane

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

Purslane do ok in some cold which means that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant purslane in Big Spring 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 purslane and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your purslane may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your purslane indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Big Spring. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Big Spring may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Big Spring you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your purslane in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Big Spring

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 Big Spring

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Big Spring.