One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when to plant hardy asters is to refer to the USDA zone info for Litchfield.

Planting Calendar for Hardy Asters

Frost tolerance for hardy asters:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Hardy Asters do ok in very little cold which tells us that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant hardy asters in Litchfield 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 hardy asters and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your hardy asters may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your hardy asters indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Litchfield the average date of last frost happens on May 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Litchfield may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Litchfield it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to protect your hardy asters if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Litchfield

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 Litchfield

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