One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 USDA zone info for Salinas should be used to determine when it's possible to plant lavender.

Planting Calendar for Lavender

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

Lavender do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant lavender 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 lavender and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your lavender may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your lavender indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Salinas. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Salinas is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Salinas you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your lavender in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.