The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant chives is to check out the USDA zone info for Ypsilanti.

Planting Calendar for Chives

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

Chives do ok in a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them much earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chives in Ypsilanti 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 chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your chives may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your chives indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Ypsilanti the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Ypsilanti is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Ypsilanti it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your chives if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ypsilanti

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 Ypsilanti

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