One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Federal Way should be reffered to in order to estimate when you can plant garden cress.

Planting Calendar for Garden cress

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

Since garden cress are not cold tolerant you must wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Federal Way 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 garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your garden cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your garden cress indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Federal Way the average date of last frost happens on March 15. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Federal Way is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Federal Way you get a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your garden cress in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Federal Way

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 Federal Way

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Federal Way.