San Jose, CA · zone 9b · ~353 frost-free days
When to plant a garden in San Jose.
In San Jose, the typical last spring frost lands around Jan 5 and the first fall frost around Dec 24, giving you about 353 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 San Jose, keyed to your frost.
| Crop | Start indoors | Spring sow / set out | Fall sow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato, slicing | Dec 1 to Jan 31 | Jan 12 to Mar 14 | — |
| Lettuce, leaf | — | Jan 1 to Jan 12 | Oct 10 to Dec 9 |
| Carrot | — | Jan 1 to Jan 1 | Sep 28 to Oct 24 |
| Bush Bean | — | Jan 5 to Feb 25 | Sep 9 to Oct 12 |
| Cucumber, slicing | — | Jan 12 to Apr 13 | Aug 23 to Sep 23 |
| Pepper, bell | Dec 10 to Jan 31 | Jan 21 to Mar 14 | — |
| Kale | Nov 20 to Nov 20 | Jan 1 to Jan 1 | Sep 23 to Nov 8 |
| Spinach | — | Jan 1 to Jan 1 | Oct 10 to Nov 28 |
San Jose 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 San Jose 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 95113 in about 60 seconds.