One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your 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 determining when it's a good idea to plant new zealand spinach is to use the USDA zone info for Carterville.

Planting Calendar for New Zealand spinach

Frost tolerance for new zealand spinach:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since new zealand spinach are moderately cold tolerant 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 new zealand spinach in Carterville 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 new zealand spinach and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your new zealand spinach may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your new zealand spinach indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Carterville. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Carterville is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Carterville you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your new zealand spinach in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Carterville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Carterville

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