One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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 getting a good idea when you can plant balsam is to check out the USDA zone info for Lakewood.

Planting Calendar for Balsam

Frost tolerance for balsam:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably a bad idea to plant balsam until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant balsam in Lakewood 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 balsam and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your balsam may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your balsam indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Lakewood. You should expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lakewood may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Lakewood it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to protect your balsam in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lakewood

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Lakewood

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