One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

The best time to plant garlic in Chatham can be estimated by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Since garlic do well in cold you can plant them much earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Chatham 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. Any later than that and your garlic may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your garlic indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Chatham. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Chatham and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Chatham you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your garlic if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Chatham

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 Chatham

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