One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 Santa Rosa you can estimate when to plant garlic by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Garlic

Frost tolerance for garlic:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant garlic quite a bit earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant garlic in Santa Rosa 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 garlic and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your garlic may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your garlic indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Santa Rosa. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Rosa is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Rosa last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your garlic in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Rosa

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 Santa Rosa

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