When to Plant Runner beans in Evanston, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

In Evanston you can figure out when it's the best time to plant runner beans by referring to the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Runner beans

Frost tolerance for runner beans: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

Runner beans are not cold tolerant which means that you really should wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant runner beans
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant runner beans
Probably not a good time to plant runner beans

The earliest that you can plant runner beans in Evanston 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 runner beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your runner beans may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your runner beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Evanston the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Evanston is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Evanston you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your runner beans if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Evanston

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 Evanston

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