One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

One way of determining when it's possible to plant tomatos is to consult the USDA zone info for Marlborough.

Planting Calendar for Tomatos

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

It's not a good idea to plant tomatos until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant tomatos in Marlborough 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 tomatos and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your tomatos may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your tomatos indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Marlborough. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Marlborough is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Marlborough you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your tomatos in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Marlborough

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 Marlborough

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