Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when you can plant chives is to look at the USDA zone info for Hampshire.

Planting Calendar for Chives

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

Since chives are very cold tolerant you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Hampshire. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hampshire may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Hampshire it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your chives in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hampshire

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 Hampshire

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