When to Plant Garden cress in Zone 8a

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Zone 8a should be read to figure out when it's a good idea to plant garden cress.


Planting Calendar for Garden cress

Frost tolerance for garden cress: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant garden cress until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant garden cress
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant garden cress
Probably not a good time to plant garden cress

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Zone 8a 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 garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your garden cress may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your garden cress indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Zone 8a. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 8a is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Zone 8a you get a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your garden cress if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 8a

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 Low10°F
Highest Expected Low15°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 Zone 8a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 8a.