One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant nigella is to look at the USDA zone info for Goleta.

Planting Calendar for Nigella

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

Nigella tend to make it in quite a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them much earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant nigella in Goleta 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 nigella and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your nigella may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your nigella indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Goleta. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Goleta is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Goleta it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your nigella if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Goleta

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Goleta

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