One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of estimating when to plant carrots is to refer to the USDA zone info for Lake Forest.

Planting Calendar for Carrots

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

You can plant carrots a little bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

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

The last month that you can plant carrots and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your carrots may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your carrots indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on January 31 in Lake Forest. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lake Forest is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Lake Forest it frosts late in the year after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your carrots in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lake Forest

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Lake Forest

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