One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Normal can be reffered to in order to estimate when you can plant spinach.

Planting Calendar for Spinach

Frost tolerance for spinach:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Spinach are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant spinach in Normal 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 spinach and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your spinach may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your spinach indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Normal is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Normal there is a last frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your spinach in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Normal

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 Normal

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