One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Elgin you can figure out when you can plant garden cress by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Garden cress

Frost tolerance for garden cress:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

You should not plant garden cress until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Elgin is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your garden cress may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garden cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Elgin is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Elgin last frost occurs after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your garden cress in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Elgin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Elgin

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