Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for East Lansing it's a good idea to estimate when it's possible to plant spearmint.

Planting Calendar for Spearmint

Frost tolerance for spearmint:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant spearmint quite a bit earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant spearmint in East Lansing 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 spearmint and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your spearmint may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your spearmint indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In East Lansing the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for East Lansing is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in East Lansing last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your spearmint in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for East Lansing

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 East Lansing

You may be interested in your other planting guides for East Lansing.