Know your Last-Spring/First-Fall Frost Dates

One of the most important things we need to know when we start our spring gardens is when to plant! Another is when to get the last goodies out of the garden and into the freezer. How do we know that? By the frost dates.

Know your frost dates! If you don't have them written down someplace yet, write them down now. I have them written on the inside cover of my All New Square Foot Gardening book. If you don't know your frost dates go to this website and put in your zip code: http://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/.

Then do one more thing to help us help you. Add a post to this topic with your zone and your frost dates. Your city/county/state could be helpful too if you feel comfortable with that. We will compile a list of the various dates, zones and places for our region. This may help us as we compare our experiences with others in like climates.

Happy Gardening

I'm in Zone 5b, Eastern Cuyahoga County/Western Geauga County, Northeast Ohio.

(FYI: the following is taken directly from the website mentioned above. I personalized the pronouns )

Each winter, on average, my risk of frost is from October 23 through April 30.
Almost certainly, however, I will receive frost from November 6 through April 14.
I am almost guaranteed that I will not get frost from May 16 through October 8.
My frost-free growing season is around 176 days.

Follow-up after reading Wyldflower's post below. I checked the local info on my dates and they come very close to the dates I posted here.

Grand Island, Nebraska (Hall County)

Each winter, on average, your risk of frost is from October 3 through
April 28.Almost certainly, however, you will receive
frost from October 21 through April 14.You are almost guaranteed
that you will not get frost from May 12 through September 16.Your
frost-free growing season is around 158 days.

Hello! This is a great post Claire.

I am in Redford Twp (Wayne County) Michigan.

My avg risk of frost is from Oct 7 to May 3; I am almost certain to have frost from Oct 25 to Apr 19; almost certain to not have frost from May 17 to Sep 20; my frost free growing season is 157 days.

This really drives the point home for me that I shouldn't plan to put out anything "tender" till after May 17. I can remember so many years where I was over-anxious, planted it all on Mother's Day, then was out there panicking throwing sheets over everything! I always avoided that if I waited till Memorial Day, and even then some things would struggle if the temps dropped at night. Now of course the veggies are different, as many of them are fine in light frost & cold temps. I am planning my big planting weekend for cold hardy items Apr 16-18.

Each winter, on average, your risk of frost is from September 25 through May 12.
Almost certainly, however, you will receive frost from October 8 through April 29.
You are almost guaranteed that you will not get frost from May 25 through September 11.
Your frost-free growing season is around 136 days.

I use an average of multiple dates. In Cincinnati (Hamilton Co.) (45227) I use April 29 as my spring frost date and my fall date is October 25.

n.

Thank you for contributing to our list of frost dates. I will start a little "database" for locations and dates and will post it soon. New gardeners will be grateful to you for your information as they browse our Forum.

5a - Lake Milton, OH (44429)

Each winter, on average, your risk of frost is from October 19 through April 28.
Almost certainly, however, you will receive frost from November 2 through April 16.
You are almost guaranteed that you will not get frost from May 10 through October 3.
Your frost-free growing season is around 174 days.

I had read on another site that my average last frost date is May 3 - which is a good mid-range date between the April 28 and May 10 dates above.

YE-OUCH!!!

Each winter, on average, your risk of frost is from August 26 through
June 30.Almost certainly, however, you will receive frost
from September 13 through June 4.You are almost guaranteed that
you will not get frost from July 25 through August 8.Your
frost-free growing season is around 57 days.
I already knew that I'd have to cover my plants... but this is a FAR shorter growing season than I had thought I'd have!

Wyldflower, I can't believe that! Are you sure you didn't put an Alaskan ZIP code in there??? Colorado Springs is NICE. Even Denver has 60 degrees in January sometimes!

If you are sure this is correct, I hope you can get a good discount on plastic -- Maybe even one of those propane heaters .

Let's all send warm vibes to Wyldflower!


May the shine on Wyldflower and her gardens.

Each winter, on average, your risk of frost is from September 30
through May 14.Almost certainly, however, you will receive
frost from October 11 through April 26.You are almost guaranteed
that you will not get frost from May 31 through September 19.Your
frost-free growing season is around 139 days.
I read on line recently that the number of temperature zones will be increased, eliminating sub-zones (5a, 5b, etc). I''ll try to find the link and add it in here.

Interesting, Martha. Thank you.

Looks like the database is messed up. I tried three zip codes in my vicinity and they all came up with the same results. BUT I then checked the website of Rick's Garden Center, which is about three miles from my house. (Of course there will be microclimate differences, but it'll be close. This is what they show:

Average last killing frost: May 15
Latest recorded frost: June 3, 1951 (when I was 3 days old!)
Average first killing frost: October 10
Earliest recorded frost: September 3 1962
Average growing season: 148 days
Average annual rainfall:15.42"

This sounds more like what I thought!!!

I'm still going to make plastic greenhouse covers, though... and stock up on sheets and light blankets from the thrift store!

Look at that! All those warm vibes we were sending to Wyldflower in Colorado Springs arrived immediately! I can't believe that database was so off. Do you suppose it was totally based on yesterday's snowfall in Denver ?

I hope the dates the other posters came up with aren't that far off. I don't think mine were. Now I'm going to have to double check.

Thanks for the update Wyldflower.

Each winter, on average, your risk of frost is from October 9 through
April 28.Almost certainly, however, you will receive
frost from October 22 through April 16.You are almost guaranteed
that you will not get frost from May 11 through September 27.Your
frost-free growing season is around 164 days
I am in zone 5b in Central OH.
Even though it lists the frost risk until the end of April, I do not plant "tender" plants until after Mother's Day.