When to Plant Basil in Wheaton, IL

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 basil in Wheaton can be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.

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Planting Calendar for Basil

Frost tolerance for basil: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

Basil do not do well in cold weather which means that you really should wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant basil
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant basil
Probably not a good time to plant basil

The earliest that you can plant basil in Wheaton is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant basil and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your basil may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your basil indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Wheaton. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Wheaton is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Wheaton it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your basil if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Wheaton

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 Wheaton

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