Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. 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 Mercer Island can be looked at to figure out when it's possible to plant lettuce.

Planting Calendar for Lettuce

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

You can plant lettuce a little bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant lettuce in Mercer Island 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 lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your lettuce may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your lettuce indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Mercer Island. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Mercer Island and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Mercer Island there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to protect your lettuce in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Mercer Island

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 Mercer Island

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mercer Island.