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.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant basil is to consult the USDA zone info for Sulphur.

Planting Calendar for Basil

Frost tolerance for basil:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant basil until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant basil in Sulphur is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant basil and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your basil may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your basil indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Sulphur. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Sulphur is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Sulphur last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your basil if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sulphur

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 Sulphur

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