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.

In Forest Lake you can determine when you can plant lettuce by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Lettuce

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

Lettuce are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant lettuce in Forest Lake is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lettuce may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on May 15 in Forest Lake. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Forest Lake is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Forest Lake it frosts late in the year after May 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your lettuce if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Forest Lake

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Forest Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Forest Lake.