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.

A way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant spinach is to consult the USDA zone info for Palo Alto.

Planting Calendar for Spinach

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

Spinach tend to make it in some cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant spinach in Palo Alto 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 spinach and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your spinach may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your spinach indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Palo Alto. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Palo Alto and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Palo Alto last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to cover your spinach in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Palo Alto

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 Palo Alto

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Palo Alto.