When to Plant Strawberries in Palos Park, IL

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant strawberries is to examine the USDA zone info for Palos Park.


Planting Calendar for Strawberries

Frost tolerance for strawberries: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Strawberries do well in quite a bit of cold which means that you can plant them much earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant strawberries
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant strawberries
Probably not a good time to plant strawberries

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

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Palos Park is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Palos Park you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your strawberries if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Palos Park

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 Palos Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Palos Park.