When to Plant Lemon balm in Shorewood, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's possible to figure out when it's a good idea to plant lemon balm by referring to the USDA zone info for Shorewood.


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.

Lemon balm do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant lemon balm
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant lemon balm
Probably not a good time to plant lemon balm

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Shorewood 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 grow to maturity. Starting your lemon balm indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Shorewood. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Shorewood is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Shorewood you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your lemon balm in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Shorewood

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 Shorewood

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