One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for River Grove it's a good idea to determine when it's a good idea to plant garlic.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

You can plant garlic quite a bit earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for River Grove 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 Grove last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to protect your garlic if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for River Grove

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 River Grove

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