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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Oak Ridge you will be able to figure out when it's a good idea 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.

You can plant lemon balm slightly earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Oak Ridge 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. If you wait any later than that and your lemon balm may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your lemon balm indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Oak Ridge. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Oak Ridge is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Oak Ridge it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your lemon balm in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Ridge

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 Oak Ridge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Oak Ridge.