One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when you can plant stocks is to refer to the USDA zone info for Santa Clara.

Planting Calendar for Stocks

Frost tolerance for stocks:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Stocks do ok in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant stocks in Santa Clara is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant stocks and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your stocks may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your stocks indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Santa Clara. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Santa Clara and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Clara you get a frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your stocks if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Clara

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 Santa Clara

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Clara.