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.

A common way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant festuca is to look at the USDA zone info for Seattle.

Planting Calendar for Festuca

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

You can plant festuca 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 festuca in Seattle 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 festuca and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your festuca may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your festuca indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Seattle the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Seattle is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Seattle you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your festuca in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Seattle

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 Seattle

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