One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

You should be able to determine when it's the best time to plant string beans by using the USDA zone info for Ashland.

Planting Calendar for String beans

Frost tolerance for string beans:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

String beans require warm weather which tells us that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant string beans in Ashland is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant string beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your string beans may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your string beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Ashland the average date of last frost happens on May 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Ashland and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Ashland you get surprised by a frost after May 15 so always be ready to protect your string beans in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ashland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Ashland

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