One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant fennel is to refer to the USDA zone info for Moscow.

Planting Calendar for Fennel

Frost tolerance for fennel:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Fennel do ok in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant fennel in Moscow 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 fennel and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your fennel may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your fennel indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Moscow. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Moscow is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Moscow you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your fennel in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Moscow

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Moscow

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