Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can estimate when it's the best time to plant fennel in Winthrop Harbor by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Fennel

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

Fennel do well in quite a bit of cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant fennel in Winthrop Harbor 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 fennel and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your fennel may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your fennel indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Winthrop Harbor. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Winthrop Harbor is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Winthrop Harbor you get a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your fennel if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Winthrop Harbor

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 Winthrop Harbor

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Winthrop Harbor.