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.

It's possible to determine when it's the best time to plant gherkins by using the USDA zone info for South Hill.

Planting Calendar for Gherkins

Frost tolerance for gherkins:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant gherkins until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant gherkins in South Hill is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant gherkins and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your gherkins may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your gherkins indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in South Hill. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for South Hill is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in South Hill last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your gherkins if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for South Hill

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in South Hill

You may be interested in your other planting guides for South Hill.