One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your 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.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Wheeling can be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

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

Since strawberries do well in cold you can plant them earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Wheeling 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 strawberries and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your strawberries may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your strawberries indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Wheeling. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Wheeling may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Wheeling you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your strawberries if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Wheeling

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

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

Plants to Grow in Wheeling

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