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.

A way of determining when it's a good idea to plant artichokes is to use the USDA zone info for Forney.

Planting Calendar for Artichokes

Frost tolerance for artichokes:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Artichokes do ok in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant artichokes in Forney 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 artichokes and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your artichokes may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your artichokes indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Forney the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Forney is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Forney you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your artichokes in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Forney

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 Forney

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