When to Plant Garlic in Melrose, MA

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.

In Melrose you can determine when it's a good idea to plant garlic by referring to the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

You can plant garlic quite a bit earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant garlic
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant garlic
Probably not a good time to plant garlic

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Melrose. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Melrose is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Melrose there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your garlic in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Melrose

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 Low0°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 Melrose

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