One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

A common way of estimating when you can plant kale is to use the USDA zone info for Santa Barbara.

Planting Calendar for Kale

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

You can plant kale a bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

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

Last Frost Date

In Santa Barbara the average date of last frost happens on January 31. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Barbara is not always accurate 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 kale 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.