One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You will be able to determine when it's a good idea to plant chard by checking out the USDA zone info for Mount Vernon.

Planting Calendar for Chard

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

Chard do well in some cold which means that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Mount Vernon. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Mount Vernon is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Mount Vernon last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your chard if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mount Vernon

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Mount Vernon

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mount Vernon.