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.

The first chance to plant matricaria in South Bend should be determined by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Matricaria

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

You can plant matricaria a bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant matricaria in South Bend 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 matricaria and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your matricaria may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your matricaria indoors.

Last Frost Date

In South Bend the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for South Bend is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in South Bend you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your matricaria if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for South Bend

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in South Bend

You may be interested in your other planting guides for South Bend.