One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

A common way of figuring out when it's possible to plant monarda is to refer to the USDA zone info for Oak Lawn.

Planting Calendar for Monarda

Frost tolerance for monarda:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Monarda are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant monarda in Oak Lawn 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 monarda and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your monarda may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your monarda indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Oak Lawn. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Oak Lawn and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Oak Lawn last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your monarda in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Lawn

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 Oak Lawn

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