One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant garden mums in Urbandale should be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Garden Mums

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

Garden Mums tend to make it in some cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant garden mums in Urbandale 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 garden mums and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your garden mums may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garden mums indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Urbandale. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Urbandale and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Urbandale it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your garden mums if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Urbandale

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 Urbandale

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