One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Ontario it's a good idea to figure out when you can plant spearmint.

Planting Calendar for Spearmint

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

You can plant spearmint a lot earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant spearmint in Ontario 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. If you wait any later than that and your spearmint may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your spearmint indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Ontario and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Ontario there is a last frost after January 31 be ready to protect your spearmint in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ontario

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 Ontario

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