When to Plant Clover in River Forest, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

A common way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant clover is to look at the USDA zone info for River Forest.


Planting Calendar for Clover

Frost tolerance for clover: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since clover do ok in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant clover in River Forest is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant clover and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your clover may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your clover indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in River Forest. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for River Forest may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in River Forest last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your clover if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for River Forest

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-10°F
Highest Expected Low-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in River Forest

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