One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Zone 12a can be reviewed to figure out when to plant garlic.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Garlic do well in pretty solid cold 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 garlic in Zone 12a is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant garlic and expect a good harvest is probably November. Any later than that and your garlic may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your garlic indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Zone 12a it never frosts. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 50°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 12a is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since it never frosts in Zone 12a you do not have to be ready to protect your garlic if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 12a

Here is the info for USDA Zone 12a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	Never
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	Never
Lowest Expected Low	50°F
Highest Expected Low	55°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 50°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 55°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 12a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 12a.