One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

In Del Mar you can estimate when it's the best time to plant chives by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chives

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

Chives do well in cold which tells us that you can get them planted much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chives in Del Mar is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant chives and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your chives may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your chives indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in Del Mar. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Del Mar may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Del Mar it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to cover your chives in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Del Mar

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Del Mar

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Del Mar.