One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 chance to plant garlic in Harvard can be determined by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Garlic are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Harvard is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Harvard there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your garlic in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Harvard

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 Harvard

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