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

You will be able to figure out when it's possible to plant pampas grass by looking at the USDA zone info for Santa Barbara.

Planting Calendar for Pampas Grass

Frost tolerance for pampas grass:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Since pampas grass require warm weather it is important to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant pampas grass 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 pampas grass and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your pampas grass may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your pampas grass indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in Santa Barbara. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Barbara is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Barbara it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to cover your pampas grass if you have a surprise late frost.

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.