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

The USDA zone info for Harvard can be reviewed to estimate when to plant violas.

Planting Calendar for Violas

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

Violas tend to make it in a bit of cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant violas in Harvard 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 violas and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your violas may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your violas indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Harvard. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Harvard is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Harvard last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your violas if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Harvard

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 Harvard

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