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

The best time to plant garden cress in Ionia can be estimated by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Garden cress

Frost tolerance for garden cress:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since garden cress are not cold tolerant it's necessary to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Ionia 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 garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your garden cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your garden cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Ionia. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ionia is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Ionia you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your garden cress if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ionia

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 Ionia

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