Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's a good idea to figure out when it's possible to plant lemon grass by checking out the USDA zone info for Mercer Island.

Planting Calendar for Lemon grass

Frost tolerance for lemon grass:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant lemon grass a bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant lemon grass in Mercer Island 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 grass and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lemon grass may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your lemon grass indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Mercer Island. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mercer Island is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Mercer Island you get a frost after March 15 so always be ready to cover your lemon grass in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mercer Island

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 Mercer Island

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mercer Island.