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.

A common way of figuring out when you can plant spearmint is to examine the USDA zone info for Virginia.

Planting Calendar for Spearmint

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

Spearmint do well in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant spearmint in Virginia 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 spearmint and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your spearmint may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your spearmint indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on May 15 in Virginia. It might get as low as -35°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Virginia is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Virginia you get surprised by a frost after May 15 be ready to protect your spearmint in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Virginia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 3b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-35°F
Highest Expected Low	-30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -30°F.

Plants to Grow in Virginia

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