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.

A common way of figuring out when you can plant dill is to look at the USDA zone info for Evanston.

Planting Calendar for Dill

Frost tolerance for dill:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant dill slightly earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant dill in Evanston is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant dill and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your dill may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your dill indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Evanston the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Evanston is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Evanston last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your dill in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Evanston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

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

Plants to Grow in Evanston

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