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

By checking out the USDA zone info for Olympia it's a good idea to estimate when it's possible to plant lemon balm.

Planting Calendar for Lemon balm

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

You can plant lemon balm just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Olympia 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 balm and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your lemon balm may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your lemon balm indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Olympia is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Olympia last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your lemon balm in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Olympia

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 Olympia

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