One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 Lemont you can figure out when it's a good idea to plant strawberries by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

Frost tolerance for strawberries:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since strawberries do well in cold you can plant them earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Lemont 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 strawberries and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your strawberries may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your strawberries indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Lemont. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lemont is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Lemont last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your strawberries if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lemont

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 Lemont

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