The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Santa Barbara it's possible to estimate when it's possible to plant garden cress.

Planting Calendar for Garden cress

Frost tolerance for garden cress:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Since garden cress require warm weather you have to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Santa Barbara is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your garden cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garden cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on January 31 in Santa Barbara. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Santa Barbara is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Santa Barbara there is a last frost after January 31 be ready to cover your garden cress if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Barbara

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 Santa Barbara

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Barbara.