One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 earliest that you can plant sweet peas in West Chicago can be determined by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Peas

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

Sweet Peas do ok in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant sweet peas in West Chicago 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 sweet peas and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sweet peas may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your sweet peas indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in West Chicago. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for West Chicago may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in West Chicago you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your sweet peas if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for West Chicago

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 West Chicago

You may be interested in your other planting guides for West Chicago.