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.

In Zone 4b you can estimate when it's the best time to plant chard by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chard

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

Chard do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chard in Zone 4b 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 chard and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your chard may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your chard indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Zone 4b. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 4b is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Zone 4b it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to protect your chard if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 4b

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 Zone 4b

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 4b.