One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Massillon you can figure out when it's a good idea to plant chard by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chard

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

Chard do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chard in Massillon 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 chard and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your chard may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your chard indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Massillon the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Massillon is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Massillon there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your chard in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Massillon

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Massillon

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