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.

In Salinas you can determine when it's possible to plant borage by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Borage

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

Since borage do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant borage in Salinas 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 borage and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your borage may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your borage indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Salinas is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Salinas there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to protect your borage in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Salinas

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 Salinas

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