One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

In Mount Vernon you can figure out when to plant balsam by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Balsam

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

It's a bad idea to plant balsam until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant balsam in Mount Vernon 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. Any later than that and your balsam may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your balsam indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Mount Vernon. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Mount Vernon and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Mount Vernon there is a last frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your balsam if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Mount Vernon

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 Mount Vernon

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mount Vernon.