One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

You should be able to estimate when it's a good idea to plant thyme by checking out the USDA zone info for Franklin.

Planting Calendar for Thyme

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

Thyme do well in cold which tells us that you can start planting them much earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant thyme in Franklin 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 fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your thyme indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Franklin. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Franklin 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 Franklin last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your thyme if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Franklin

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 Franklin

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