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

In Oxford you can determine when it's the best time to plant spearmint by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Spearmint

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

Spearmint tend to make it in a bit of cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant spearmint in Oxford 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. Any later than that and your spearmint may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your spearmint indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Oxford the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Oxford may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Oxford last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your spearmint in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Oxford

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Oxford

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