One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your 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.

In Mount Vernon you can figure out when it's possible to plant melampodium by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

Frost tolerance for melampodium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's a bad idea to plant melampodium until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Mount Vernon is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your melampodium may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your melampodium indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Mount Vernon. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Mount Vernon is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Mount Vernon last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your melampodium if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mount Vernon

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Mount Vernon

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mount Vernon.