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.

A way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant lemon balm is to refer to the USDA zone info for Fitchburg.

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.

Since lemon balm are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Fitchburg 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 really do well. If you are starting your lemon balm indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Fitchburg. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Fitchburg is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Fitchburg you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your lemon balm in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fitchburg

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 Fitchburg

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