Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant fennel is to look at the USDA zone info for Germantown.

Planting Calendar for Fennel

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

Fennel tend to make it in a bit of cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant fennel in Germantown 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 fennel and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your fennel may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your fennel indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Germantown. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Germantown is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Germantown you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your fennel in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Germantown

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

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

Plants to Grow in Germantown

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