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.

A common way of estimating when it's the best time to plant chives is to use the USDA zone info for Aspen.

Planting Calendar for Chives

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

Chives can survive in cold weather which means that you can plant them earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chives in Aspen 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 chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your chives may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your chives indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Aspen is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Aspen you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your chives in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Aspen

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 Aspen

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