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.

The first opportunity to plant garlic in Shelbyville should be figured out by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

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

Since garlic are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Shelbyville 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 grow to maturity. Starting your garlic indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Shelbyville. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Shelbyville is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Shelbyville last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your garlic if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Shelbyville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Shelbyville

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