When to Plant Chard in Pleasant Hill, IA

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of estimating when you can plant chard is to look at the USDA zone info for Pleasant Hill.


Planting Calendar for Chard

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

You can plant chard just a bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant chard
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant chard
Probably not a good time to plant chard

The earliest that you can plant chard in Pleasant Hill 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 chard and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your chard may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your chard indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Pleasant Hill. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Pleasant Hill is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Pleasant Hill you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your chard if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Pleasant Hill

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 Pleasant Hill

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Pleasant Hill.