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.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant ornamental grasses is to consult the USDA zone info for Mokena.

Planting Calendar for Ornamental Grasses

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

You can plant ornamental grasses slightly earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant ornamental grasses in Mokena 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 ornamental grasses and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your ornamental grasses may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your ornamental grasses indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Mokena is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Mokena last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your ornamental grasses if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mokena

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 Mokena

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