If you mature veggie from source , the mailboat almost always lists how long before or after your middling last frost date you should embed . It ’s important to recognise your “ icing - free ” dates and what those stand for for your vegetable garden .
Generally , the frost - free dates are those part of the year when the odds of getting arrive at by frost are very low . The dates are calculated based on years of weather data , and may vary importantly across a state of matter or region .
For example , I survive in Northfield , 40 miles in the south of Minneapolis and St. Paul . According to thisextremely ready to hand calculatorfrom the garden forum , Dave ’s Garden , on average my garden will not experience frost between May 3 and Sept. 30 . I ’m almost guaranteed it wo n’t ice between May 17 and Sept. 18 . ( I ’m fairly much doomed to ice anytime between Oct. 11 and April 19 . ) So , my average growing season is 150 days , which means I do n’t want to choose long - season melons or other craw unless I plan to foster them in a moth-eaten frame .
USDA Zone Map
If I lived up near Moorhead , however , my average last frost would be a week later than in Northfield — May 10 — and my medium first frost would be a week earlier — Sept. 24 . In Moorhead , the out-and-out guarantee no Robert Lee Frost date is May 25 and the grow season is 137 days , almost two hebdomad short than in southern Minnesota .
While know the hoar - free dates is important , you also want to bear attention to your own garden . My vegetable garden is in a low part of my fortune , and as such , it stays a bit cool than other surface area nearby , so I tend not to plant out lovesome time of year crops , such as tomatoes , until June . The works do much better if I wait until the soil is warm up .
Once you make love your frost - free dates , you’re able to figure out when to set things . nerveless - time of year veg — Beta vulgaris , lucre , peas , broccoli — can be start a few week before the frost - free date , but tomatoes , beans , cucumbers and annual flowers should wait until after the freeze - free appointment . seminal fluid packets will usually commend when to plant .
Since our clime has been — uh , how shall we put this ? unpredictable — recently , some gardeners have bulge out to go by natural signs ( flora and boo activity ) rather than measure base on class when the clime may have been cool than it is now . Phenologyis interesting to learn and you might desire to consider some of these testimonial in settle when to imbed :
Do you use ice free dates to adjudicate when to engraft or nature signs ?
— Mary Lahr Schier
