One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

In Elgin you can figure out when it's a good idea to plant garden orache by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Garden Orache

Frost tolerance for garden orache:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant garden orache a little earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant garden orache in Elgin 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 garden orache and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garden orache may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your garden orache indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Elgin the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Elgin is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Elgin you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your garden orache if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elgin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Elgin

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