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

One way of figuring out when you can plant basil is to examine the USDA zone info for Danville.

Planting Calendar for Basil

Frost tolerance for basil:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

You should not plant basil until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant basil in Danville 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 basil and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your basil may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your basil indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Danville is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Danville there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your basil if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Danville

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 Danville

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