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.

It's a good idea to determine when to plant skullcap by using the USDA zone info for Costa Mesa.

Planting Calendar for Skullcap

Frost tolerance for skullcap:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's a bad idea to plant skullcap until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in Costa Mesa. You can expect an average low temperature of 35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Costa Mesa and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Costa Mesa last frost occurs after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your skullcap in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Costa Mesa

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	35°F
Highest Expected Low	40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in Costa Mesa

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Costa Mesa.