One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant snow-in summer in Ankeny can be estimated by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Snow-in Summer

Frost tolerance for snow-in summer:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant snow-in summer a little bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant snow-in summer in Ankeny 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 snow-in summer and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your snow-in summer may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your snow-in summer indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Ankeny. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ankeny is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Ankeny you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your snow-in summer if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ankeny

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Ankeny

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