One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Chelsea you should be able to figure out when you can plant borage.

Planting Calendar for Borage

Frost tolerance for borage:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Borage can survive in moderate cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Chelsea. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Chelsea may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Chelsea it frosts late in the year after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your borage in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Chelsea

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 Chelsea

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