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.

By reviewing the USDA zone info for Longboat Key you will be able to determine when you can plant borage.

Planting Calendar for Borage

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

Borage do well in moderate cold which means that you can get them planted earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant borage in Longboat Key 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 borage and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your borage may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your borage indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Longboat Key and it is different every year. Half of the time in Longboat Key you get surprised by a frost after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your borage if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Longboat Key

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 Longboat Key

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Longboat Key.