One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant lemon balm is to consult the USDA zone info for Franklin.

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.

You can plant lemon balm slightly earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Franklin 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. If you wait any later than that and your lemon balm may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your lemon balm indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Franklin. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Franklin and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Franklin you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your lemon balm in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Franklin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Franklin

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