One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 kale in Ann Arbor can be estimated by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Kale

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

Since kale are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Ann Arbor. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ann Arbor is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Ann Arbor it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your kale if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ann Arbor

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 Ann Arbor

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Ann Arbor.