One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The earliest that you can plant chives in Washougal can be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chives

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

Since chives do well in cold you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant chives in Washougal 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 chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your chives may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your chives indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Washougal. You should expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Washougal is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Washougal it frosts late in the year after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your chives in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Washougal

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 Washougal

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