The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Lombard you should be able to figure out when it's possible to plant strawberries.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

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

Strawberries are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Lombard 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your strawberries indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Lombard is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Lombard last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your strawberries in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lombard

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 Lombard

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