When to Plant Parsley in River Forest, IL

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when you can plant parsley is to refer to the USDA zone info for River Forest.


Planting Calendar for Parsley

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

Since parsley are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant parsley in River Forest 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 parsley and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your parsley may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your parsley indoors.

Last Frost Date

In River Forest the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for River Forest is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in River Forest it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your parsley if you have one of those late frosts.

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.