One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the 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 a good idea to plant borage is to examine the USDA zone info for Jackson.

Planting Calendar for Borage

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

Borage do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Jackson and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Jackson you get surprised by a frost after May 15 be ready to protect your borage if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Jackson

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 Jackson

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