One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

In Council Bluffs you can determine when it's possible to plant gazania by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gazania

Frost tolerance for gazania:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant gazania a bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant gazania in Council Bluffs is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant gazania and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your gazania may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your gazania indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Council Bluffs is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Council Bluffs last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your gazania in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Council Bluffs

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 Council Bluffs

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Council Bluffs.