One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The earliest that you can plant fennel in Smyrna can be estimated by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Fennel

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

Fennel do ok in pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them much earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant fennel in Smyrna 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 fennel and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your fennel may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your fennel indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Smyrna. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Smyrna is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Smyrna it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to protect your fennel if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Smyrna

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Smyrna

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