One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

The first opportunity to plant artichokes in Shelby should be determined by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Artichokes

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

Since artichokes are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant artichokes in Shelby is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant artichokes and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your artichokes may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your artichokes indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Shelby. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Shelby is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Shelby it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your artichokes in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Shelby

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Shelby

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