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.

The USDA zone info for Oregon can be reffered to in order to estimate when you can 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 a bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant lemon balm in Oregon 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. Any later than that and your lemon balm may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your lemon balm indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Oregon the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Oregon is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Oregon you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your lemon balm in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Oregon

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 Oregon

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