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

In Wilmette you can determine when it's the best time to plant pumpkins by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Pumpkins

Frost tolerance for pumpkins:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Since pumpkins do not do well in cold weather it is necessary to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant pumpkins in Wilmette is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant pumpkins and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your pumpkins may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pumpkins indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Wilmette. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

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 Wilmette and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Wilmette you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your pumpkins if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Wilmette

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 Wilmette

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