One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant cabbage is to check out the USDA zone info for Northfield.

Planting Calendar for Cabbage

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

Cabbage do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant cabbage in Northfield 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 cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cabbage may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to 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 Northfield and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Northfield last frost occurs after May 15 be ready to protect your cabbage if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Northfield

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 Northfield

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