One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

One way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant iresene is to consult the USDA zone info for Yakima.

Planting Calendar for Iresene

Frost tolerance for iresene:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's a bad idea to plant iresene until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant iresene in Yakima is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant iresene and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your iresene may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your iresene indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Yakima. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Yakima may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Yakima last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your iresene if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Yakima

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Yakima

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