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.

In La Puente you can determine when to plant lemon balm by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Lemon balm

Frost tolerance for lemon balm:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since lemon balm are barely cold tolerant you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in La Puente is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant lemon balm and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your lemon balm may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your lemon balm indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in La Puente. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for La Puente is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in La Puente it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to protect your lemon balm if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for La Puente

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in La Puente

You may be interested in your other planting guides for La Puente.