The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can figure out when you can plant basil in Athens by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Basil

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant basil until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant basil in Athens 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. 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

In Athens the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Athens is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Athens it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your basil if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Athens

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 Athens

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