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

A way of estimating when to plant tarragon is to check out the USDA zone info for Storm Lake.

Planting Calendar for Tarragon

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

Tarragon are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant tarragon in Storm Lake 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 tarragon and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your tarragon may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your tarragon indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Storm Lake. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Storm Lake may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Storm Lake you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your tarragon in the event of a late frost.

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.