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.

In Oak Forest you can determine when it's possible to plant string beans by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for String beans

Frost tolerance for string beans:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

String beans are not cold tolerant which means that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant string beans in Oak Forest is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant string beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your string beans may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your string beans indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Oak Forest. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Oak Forest is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Oak Forest last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your string beans in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Forest

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 Oak Forest

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Oak Forest.