Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for National City it's possible to figure out when you can plant lemon balm.

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 means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in National City 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. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your lemon balm indoors.

Last Frost Date

In National City the average date of last frost happens on January 31. You should expect an average low temperature of 35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for National City is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in National City there is a last frost after January 31 be ready to protect your lemon balm in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for National City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	35°F
Highest Expected Low	40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in National City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for National City.