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

The first chance to plant chinese chives in Orinda should be determined by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chinese chives

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

Since chinese chives are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant chinese chives in Orinda 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 chinese chives and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your chinese chives may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your chinese chives indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Orinda. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Orinda is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Orinda last frost occurs after February 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your chinese chives in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Orinda

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 Orinda

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