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.

A common way of figuring out when to plant spearmint is to use the USDA zone info for Red Oak.

Planting Calendar for Spearmint

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

Spearmint are very cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant spearmint in Red Oak 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 spearmint and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your spearmint may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your spearmint indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Red Oak. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Red Oak is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Red Oak there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your spearmint if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Red Oak

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°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 -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Red Oak

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Red Oak.