Sacramento, CA · zone 9b · ~317 frost-free days
When to plant a garden in Sacramento.
In Sacramento, the typical last spring frost lands around Jan 25 and the first fall frost around Dec 8, giving you about 317 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 Sacramento, keyed to your frost.
| Crop | Start indoors | Spring sow / set out | Fall sow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato, slicing | Dec 21 to Feb 20 | Feb 1 to Apr 3 | — |
| Lettuce, leaf | — | Jan 1 to Feb 1 | Sep 24 to Nov 23 |
| Carrot | — | Jan 1 to Jan 20 | Sep 12 to Oct 8 |
| Bush Bean | — | Jan 25 to Mar 17 | Aug 24 to Sep 26 |
| Cucumber, slicing | — | Feb 1 to May 3 | Aug 7 to Sep 7 |
| Pepper, bell | Dec 30 to Feb 20 | Feb 10 to Apr 3 | — |
| Kale | Nov 20 to Dec 4 | Jan 1 to Jan 15 | Sep 7 to Oct 23 |
| Spinach | — | Jan 1 to Jan 15 | Sep 24 to Nov 12 |
Sacramento sits in Zone 9b, 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 Sacramento 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 95814 in about 60 seconds.