One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the 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 figuring out when it's a good idea to plant nigella is to look at the USDA zone info for Oakland.

Planting Calendar for Nigella

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

You can plant nigella earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant nigella in Oakland 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your nigella may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your nigella indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on January 31 in Oakland. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Oakland and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Oakland it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to cover your nigella if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Oakland

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 Oakland

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