One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

You can estimate when it's the best time to plant garden cress in Springfield by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Garden cress

Frost tolerance for garden cress:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Garden cress are not cold tolerant which tells us that it's necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Springfield 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 garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your garden cress may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your garden cress indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Springfield. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Springfield is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Springfield there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your garden cress if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Springfield

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Springfield

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