One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The earliest that you can plant fennel in Keene can be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Fennel

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

Fennel do well in cold which means that you can start planting them much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant fennel in Keene 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 fennel and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your fennel may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your fennel indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that USDA zone info for Keene is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Keene you get a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your fennel if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Keene

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 Keene

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