One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Itasca you should be able to determine when it's a good idea to plant garden cress.

Planting Calendar for Garden cress

Frost tolerance for garden cress:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You should not plant garden cress until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Itasca is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your garden cress may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garden cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Itasca. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Itasca is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Itasca there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your garden cress if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Itasca

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 Itasca

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