One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant nigella is to consult the USDA zone info for Santa Clara.

Planting Calendar for Nigella

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

Nigella are very cold tolerant which means that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant nigella in Santa Clara 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. Any later than that and your nigella may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your nigella indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Santa Clara. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Santa Clara is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Clara you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your nigella if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Clara

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Santa Clara

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