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 Brookfield you can estimate when it's a good idea to plant thyme by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Thyme

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

Thyme can survive in quite a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant thyme in Brookfield 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. If you wait any later than that and your thyme may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your thyme indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Brookfield. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Brookfield 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 Brookfield you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your thyme if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Brookfield

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

Plants to Grow in Brookfield

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