One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the 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.

One way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant garlic is to consult the USDA zone info for Carpentersville.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Garlic do well in a bit of cold which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant garlic 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 garlic and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your garlic may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garlic indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Carpentersville is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Carpentersville there is a last frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your garlic in the event of a surprise late frost.

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.