One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 figuring out when it's a good idea to plant nigella is to examine the USDA zone info for Leonia.

Planting Calendar for Nigella

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

Since nigella are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant nigella in Leonia 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 nigella and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your nigella may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your nigella indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Leonia. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Leonia is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Leonia it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your nigella if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Leonia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Leonia

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Leonia.