One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 determining when it's a good idea to plant arabis is to look at the USDA zone info for Carbondale.

Planting Calendar for Arabis

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

Since arabis do well in cold you can plant them earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant arabis in Carbondale 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 arabis and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your arabis may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your arabis indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Carbondale. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Carbondale is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Carbondale there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your arabis in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Carbondale

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 Carbondale

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