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 USDA zone info for Silvis can be looked at to figure out when to plant garlic.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Garlic are very cold tolerant which means that you can plant them much earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Silvis 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. Any later than that and your garlic may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your garlic indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Silvis. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Silvis is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Silvis last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your garlic if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Silvis

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 Silvis

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