One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant spearmint is to look at the USDA zone info for San Jose.

Planting Calendar for Spearmint

Frost tolerance for spearmint:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant spearmint a lot earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant spearmint in San Jose 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 spearmint and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your spearmint may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your spearmint indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for San Jose is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in San Jose there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to cover your spearmint if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for San Jose

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 San Jose

You may be interested in your other planting guides for San Jose.