One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

A common way of figuring out when it's possible to plant flax is to examine the USDA zone info for Lake Forest.

Planting Calendar for Flax

Frost tolerance for flax:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Flax do ok in some cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Lake Forest. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Lake Forest and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Lake Forest there is a last frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your flax if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lake Forest

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 Lake Forest

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