El Paso, TX · zone 8a · ~259 frost-free days
When to plant a garden in El Paso.
In El Paso, the typical last spring frost lands around Mar 5 and the first fall frost around Nov 19, giving you about 259 frost-free days. Cool-season crops go out before the last frost; warm-season crops wait until after it.
The 2026 windows
Sow dates for El Paso, keyed to your frost.
| Crop | Start indoors | Spring sow / set out | Fall sow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato, slicing | Jan 29 to Mar 31 | Mar 12 to May 12 | — |
| Lettuce, leaf | — | Jan 26 to Mar 12 | Sep 5 to Nov 4 |
| Carrot | — | Jan 26 to Feb 28 | Aug 24 to Sep 19 |
| Bush Bean | — | Mar 5 to Apr 25 | Aug 5 to Sep 7 |
| Cucumber, slicing | — | Mar 12 to Jun 11 | Jul 19 to Aug 19 |
| Pepper, bell | Feb 7 to Mar 31 | Mar 21 to May 12 | — |
| Kale | Dec 15 to Jan 12 | Jan 26 to Feb 23 | Aug 19 to Oct 4 |
| Spinach | — | Jan 12 to Feb 23 | Sep 5 to Oct 24 |
El Paso sits in Zone 8a, but two gardens in the same city can be a week or two apart. The planner works from your ZIP code's frost dates, not the zone, so the dates land right for your block, not the metro average.
Build your El Paso garden plan.
Tell the free planner what you want to eat and who you're feeding. It returns plant counts, spacing, and frost-safe sow dates for ZIP 79901 in about 60 seconds.