One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can determine when it's possible to plant spearmint in Rantoul by checking out 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.

Since spearmint are very cold tolerant you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant spearmint in Rantoul 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. Any later than that and your spearmint may not have a chance to fully mature. 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 Rantoul. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Rantoul is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Rantoul there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your spearmint in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rantoul

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 Rantoul

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