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

You can figure out when it's a good idea to plant spearmint in Madison by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Spearmint

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

Spearmint are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant spearmint in Madison 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 spearmint and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your spearmint may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your spearmint indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Madison. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Madison may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Madison last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your spearmint if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Madison

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