When to Plant Lemon balm in Sebastopol, CA

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

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Sebastopol should be estimated by reviewing 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.

Lemon balm are barely cold tolerant which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant lemon balm
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant lemon balm
Probably not a good time to plant lemon balm

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Sebastopol 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lemon balm may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your lemon balm indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Sebastopol. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Sebastopol is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Sebastopol it frosts late in the year after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your lemon balm if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sebastopol

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low20°F
Highest Expected Low25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Sebastopol

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