When to Plant Peas in Mercer Island, WA

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant peas in Mercer Island can be estimated by using the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Peas

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

Peas are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant peas
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant peas
Probably not a good time to plant peas

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Mercer Island. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Mercer Island is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Mercer Island last frost occurs after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your peas if you have 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 Low15°F
Highest Expected Low20°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.