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.

One way of figuring out when to plant garlic is to look at the USDA zone info for Marseilles.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Garlic can survive in quite a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Marseilles 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 garlic and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garlic may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your garlic indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Marseilles is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Marseilles it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your garlic in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Marseilles

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 Marseilles

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