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.

A way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant runner beans is to look at the USDA zone info for Urbandale.

Planting Calendar for Runner beans

Frost tolerance for runner beans:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

You can not plant runner beans until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant runner beans in Urbandale is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant runner beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your runner beans may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your runner beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Urbandale and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Urbandale last frost occurs after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your runner beans in the event of a surprise 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.