One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Crystal Lake you should be able to estimate when it's the best time to plant spinach.

Planting Calendar for Spinach

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

Spinach do well in mild cold which means that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant spinach in Crystal Lake 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 spinach and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your spinach may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your spinach indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Crystal Lake is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Crystal Lake last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your spinach in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Crystal Lake

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 Crystal Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Crystal Lake.