One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

A way of estimating when you can plant pea is to use the USDA zone info for Olympia.

Planting Calendar for Pea

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

Pea do well in cold weather which tells us that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant pea in Olympia 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 pea and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your pea may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pea indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Olympia. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Olympia is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Olympia you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your pea if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Olympia

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 Olympia

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