One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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 Portland you can determine when it's the best time to plant borage by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Borage

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

Since borage do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant borage in Portland 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 borage and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your borage may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your borage indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Portland. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Portland is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Portland you get a frost after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your borage in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Portland

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