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

A common way of making a decision about when you can plant melons is to examine the USDA zone info for Walden.

Planting Calendar for Melons

Frost tolerance for melons:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's a bad idea to plant melons until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant melons in Walden 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 melons and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your melons may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your melons indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Walden. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Walden and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Walden there is a last frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your melons if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Walden

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 Walden

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