The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant strawberries is to consult the USDA zone info for Lake Forest.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

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

Strawberries do ok in a bit of cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries 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 strawberries and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your strawberries may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your strawberries indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Lake Forest the average date of last frost happens on January 31. 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 just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Lake Forest last frost occurs after January 31 so make sure that you are ready to protect your strawberries if you have 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.