The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can estimate when it's possible to plant spearmint in Lake Bluff by looking at the USDA zone info.

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 one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant spearmint in Lake Bluff 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. If you wait any later than that and your spearmint may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your spearmint indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Lake Bluff. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Lake Bluff is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Lake Bluff you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your spearmint in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lake Bluff

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Lake Bluff

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lake Bluff.