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.

You will be able to estimate when it's the best time to plant chard by looking at the USDA zone info for Chaska.

Planting Calendar for Chard

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

Since chard 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 plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chard in Chaska 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 chard and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your chard may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your chard indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Chaska. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Chaska may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Chaska there is a last frost after May 15 be ready to protect your chard if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Chaska

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Chaska

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