Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out 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 Island Lake should be reffered to in order to estimate when to plant purslane.

Planting Calendar for Purslane

Frost tolerance for purslane:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

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

The earliest that you can plant purslane in Island Lake is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant purslane and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your purslane may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your purslane indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Island Lake. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Island Lake is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Island Lake there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your purslane if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Island 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 Island Lake

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