The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to determine when it's possible to plant garlic by referring to the USDA zone info for Dowagiac.

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 much earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Dowagiac 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 little bit earlier by starting your garlic indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Dowagiac is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Dowagiac last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to protect your garlic in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Dowagiac

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Dowagiac

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