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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Erie you should be able to estimate when it's the best time to plant garlic.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Garlic are very cold tolerant which means that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Erie 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 garlic and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your garlic may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your garlic indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Erie the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Erie is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Erie you get a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your garlic in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Erie

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 Erie

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