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.

You can figure out when it's the best time to plant chives in Grand Island by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chives

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

Chives tend to make it in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant chives in Grand Island 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 chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your chives may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your chives indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Grand Island. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Grand Island may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Grand Island it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your chives if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Grand Island

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Grand Island

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Grand Island.