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.

It's possible to estimate when it's the best time to plant chinese chives by checking out the USDA zone info for North Chicago.

Planting Calendar for Chinese chives

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

Since chinese chives do well in moderate cold you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant chinese chives in North Chicago 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 chinese chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your chinese chives may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your chinese chives indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for North Chicago is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in North Chicago it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your chinese chives if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for North Chicago

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 North Chicago

You may be interested in your other planting guides for North Chicago.