One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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 Barnwell should be used to figure out when it's the best time to plant monarda.

Planting Calendar for Monarda

Frost tolerance for monarda:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Monarda are barely cold tolerant which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

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

Last Frost Date

In Barnwell the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Barnwell is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Barnwell last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your monarda in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Barnwell

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Barnwell

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