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.

One way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant nigella is to examine the USDA zone info for Prior Lake.

Planting Calendar for Nigella

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

Nigella tend to make it in cold weather which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant nigella in Prior Lake 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 nigella and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your nigella may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your nigella indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Prior Lake is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Prior Lake you get surprised by a frost after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your nigella in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Prior Lake

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 Prior Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Prior Lake.