The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first chance to plant string beans in Downers Grove should be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for String beans

Frost tolerance for string beans:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant string beans until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant string beans in Downers Grove is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant string beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your string beans may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your string beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Downers Grove. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Downers Grove is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Downers Grove it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your string beans if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Downers Grove

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 Downers Grove

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Downers Grove.