One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Lake Forest you can figure out when it's a good idea to plant pearl onions by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Pearl onions

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

Pearl onions are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant pearl onions in Lake Forest 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 pearl onions and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your pearl onions may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your pearl onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Lake Forest is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Lake Forest it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your pearl onions in the event of a late frost.

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.