One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant strawberries is to use the USDA zone info for Hillsdale.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

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

You can plant strawberries earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Hillsdale 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 strawberries and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your strawberries may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your strawberries indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Hillsdale the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Hillsdale is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Hillsdale it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your strawberries in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Hillsdale

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Hillsdale

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