One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

In Carthage you can estimate when it's possible to plant pea by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Pea

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

Pea tend to make it in pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant pea in Carthage 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 pea and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your pea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your pea indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Carthage. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Carthage is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Carthage you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so always be ready to cover your pea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Carthage

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Carthage

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