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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant flowering kale is to look at the USDA zone info for Sterling.

Planting Calendar for Flowering Kale

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

Since flowering kale do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant flowering kale in Sterling 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 flowering kale and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your flowering kale may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your flowering kale indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Sterling. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Sterling may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Sterling you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your flowering kale if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sterling

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Sterling

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