One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Abilene it's a good idea to estimate when you can 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 well in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Abilene 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

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Abilene. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Abilene may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Abilene you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your lemon balm in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Abilene

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 Abilene

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