One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

One way of determining when you can plant basil is to examine the USDA zone info for Bellaire.

Planting Calendar for Basil

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

Basil require warm weather which means that it's necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant basil in Bellaire 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 basil and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your basil may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your basil indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Bellaire. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Bellaire is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Bellaire it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your basil if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bellaire

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Bellaire

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