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.

You should be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant thyme by referring to the USDA zone info for Williamsburg.

Planting Calendar for Thyme

Frost tolerance for thyme:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant thyme much earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant thyme in Williamsburg is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Williamsburg. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Williamsburg is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Williamsburg there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your thyme if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Williamsburg

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Williamsburg

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