Houston, TX · zone 9a · ~325 frost-free days
When to plant a garden in Houston.
In Houston, the typical last spring frost lands around Feb 2 and the first fall frost around Dec 24, giving you about 325 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 Houston, keyed to your frost.
| Crop | Start indoors | Spring sow / set out | Fall sow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato, slicing | Dec 29 to Feb 28 | Feb 9 to Apr 11 | — |
| Lettuce, leaf | — | Jan 1 to Feb 9 | Oct 10 to Dec 9 |
| Carrot | — | Jan 1 to Jan 28 | Sep 28 to Oct 24 |
| Bush Bean | — | Feb 2 to Mar 25 | Sep 9 to Oct 12 |
| Cucumber, slicing | — | Feb 9 to May 11 | Aug 23 to Sep 23 |
| Pepper, bell | Jan 7 to Feb 28 | Feb 18 to Apr 11 | — |
| Kale | Nov 20 to Dec 12 | Jan 1 to Jan 23 | Sep 23 to Nov 8 |
| Spinach | — | Jan 1 to Jan 23 | Oct 10 to Nov 28 |
Houston sits in Zone 9a, 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 Houston 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 77002 in about 60 seconds.