One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The earliest that you can plant kale in Los Altos can be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Kale

Frost tolerance for kale:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Kale are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant kale in Los Altos is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant kale and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your kale may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your kale indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Los Altos. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Los Altos is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Los Altos it frosts late in the year after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your kale in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Los Altos

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Los Altos

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Los Altos.