One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

One way of getting a good idea when it's possible to plant lemon balm is to examine the USDA zone info for Lake Charles.

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 can survive in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Lake Charles 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 lemon balm and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your lemon balm may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your lemon balm indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Lake Charles the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lake Charles is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Lake Charles it frosts late in the year after February 15 so always be ready to cover your lemon balm in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lake Charles

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Lake Charles

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lake Charles.