One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Mount Vernon should be reviewed to figure out when it's the best time to plant lemon balm.

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 do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Mount Vernon 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lemon balm may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your lemon balm indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Mount Vernon the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mount Vernon is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Mount Vernon you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your lemon balm in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mount Vernon

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Mount Vernon

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mount Vernon.