One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant lemon balm is to use the USDA zone info for Lake Forest.

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.

Lemon balm do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Lake Forest 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. Any later than that and your lemon balm may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your lemon balm 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 January 31 in Lake Forest. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Lake Forest is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Lake Forest you get a frost after January 31 be ready to cover your lemon balm in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lake Forest

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 Lake Forest

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lake Forest.