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.

One way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant spinach is to examine the USDA zone info for Ashtabula.

Planting Calendar for Spinach

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

Spinach do ok in mild cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant spinach in Ashtabula 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 spinach and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your spinach may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your spinach indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Ashtabula. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ashtabula may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Ashtabula you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your spinach in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ashtabula

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

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

Plants to Grow in Ashtabula

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