One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

You can determine when it's the best time to plant fennel in Fox Lake by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Fennel

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

You can plant fennel earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant fennel in Fox 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 fennel and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your fennel may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your fennel indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Fox Lake. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Fox Lake is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Fox Lake you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your fennel in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fox 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 Fox Lake

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