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.

A way of getting a good idea when you can plant borage is to examine the USDA zone info for Brainerd.

Planting Calendar for Borage

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

Borage tend to make it in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant borage in Brainerd is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant borage and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your borage may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your borage indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on May 15 in Brainerd. You can expect an average low temperature of -35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Brainerd and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Brainerd it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to protect your borage if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Brainerd

Here is the info for USDA Zone 3b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-35°F
Highest Expected Low	-30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -30°F.

Plants to Grow in Brainerd

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