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.

It's a good idea to determine when it's a good idea to plant fennel by checking out the USDA zone info for Carpentersville.

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 quite a bit of cold which means that you can plant them much earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant fennel in Carpentersville 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 little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Carpentersville is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Carpentersville you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your fennel if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Carpentersville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Carpentersville

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