One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

You should be able to estimate when it's a good idea to plant spinach by looking at the USDA zone info for Northbrook.

Planting Calendar for Spinach

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

Since spinach do well in moderate cold you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant spinach in Northbrook 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 couple of weeks earlier by starting your spinach indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Northbrook and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Northbrook last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to cover your spinach in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Northbrook

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 Northbrook

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