One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

The best time to plant welsh onion in Island Lake can be determined by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Welsh onion

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

Since welsh onion do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant welsh onion 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 welsh onion and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your welsh onion may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your welsh onion indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Island Lake 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 Island Lake is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Island Lake you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your welsh onion 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.