One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

One way of making a decision about when you can plant snow-in summer is to use the USDA zone info for Storm Lake.

Planting Calendar for Snow-in Summer

Frost tolerance for snow-in summer:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Snow-in Summer do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant snow-in summer in Storm Lake 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 snow-in summer and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your snow-in summer may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your snow-in summer indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Storm Lake the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Storm Lake is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Storm Lake you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your snow-in summer in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Storm Lake

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 Storm Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Storm Lake.