One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

The USDA zone info for Skokie should be used to figure out when it's a good idea to plant garden orache.

Planting Calendar for Garden Orache

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

You can plant garden orache a bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant garden orache in Skokie 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 garden orache and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garden orache may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your garden orache 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 Skokie. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Skokie and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Skokie it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your garden orache if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Skokie

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 Skokie

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Skokie.