One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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 it's possible to plant spearmint is to look at the USDA zone info for Scottsdale.

Planting Calendar for Spearmint

Frost tolerance for spearmint:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Spearmint tend to make it in quite a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant spearmint in Scottsdale is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant spearmint and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your spearmint may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your spearmint indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Scottsdale. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Scottsdale may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Scottsdale you get a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your spearmint in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Scottsdale

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°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 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Scottsdale

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