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

You should be able to determine when it's possible to plant lemon balm by checking out the USDA zone info for Charleston.

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.

You can plant lemon balm a bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Charleston is March. However, you really should wait until April 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 August. 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. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your lemon balm indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Charleston. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Charleston is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Charleston you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your lemon balm in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Charleston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Charleston

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