One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

One way of determining when it's possible to plant chard is to use the USDA zone info for Delavan.

Planting Calendar for Chard

Frost tolerance for chard:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant chard a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant chard in Delavan 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 chard and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chard may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your chard indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Delavan. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Delavan is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Delavan you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your chard if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Delavan

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

Plants to Grow in Delavan

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