One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 strawberries in Zone 8a should be estimated by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

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

Since strawberries are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Zone 8a 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 strawberries and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your strawberries may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your strawberries indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 8a is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Zone 8a there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to protect your strawberries if you have one of those late frosts.

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 Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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.