When to Plant Basil in Oak Harbor, WA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant basil in Oak Harbor should be estimated by looking at the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Basil

Frost tolerance for basil: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost.

Since basil do not do well in cold weather you must wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant basil
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant basil
Probably not a good time to plant basil

The earliest that you can plant basil in Oak Harbor is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant basil and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your basil may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your basil indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Oak Harbor. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Oak Harbor is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Oak Harbor you get a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your basil in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Harbor

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 Low15°F
Highest Expected Low20°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 Oak Harbor

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Oak Harbor.