Zone 11b Planting Guide
Zone 11b sees no frost in a typical year. Average annual minimum temperature runs 45°F to 50°F. Because every planting date on this site is calculated by counting weeks from a median frost date, and your zone doesn't have one, there is no frost-based calendar to show — and inventing one would be worse than useless. What follows is what actually governs timing where you garden.
Comparable areas: Key West, FL, Lower Florida Keys, FL. Frost-free. Null frost dates by design. In the contiguous US this zone is essentially limited to the lower Florida Keys; it also appears at some Hawaiian elevations, though most of lowland Hawaii is zone 12 and outside this dataset.
How to time planting without a frost date
In frost-free climates the growing year inverts. Heat, not cold, is what stops crops — so the months other gardeners treat as peak season are the ones you plan around.
- Winter is your main vegetable season. Lettuce, spinach, brassicas, peas, carrots, beets and cilantro all do their best work in your coolest months. Sown in summer they bolt almost immediately.
- Split the warm-season crops into two windows. Tomatoes and peppers stop setting fruit once night temperatures sit above roughly 75°F, so aim for a spring crop that fruits before peak heat and a second planting that fruits after it.
- Use heat-tolerant crops through summer. Okra, sweet potato, southern peas, malabar spinach and peppers handle the hottest stretch better than anything in the cabbage or lettuce families.
- Watch chill hours for perennials. Many fruit trees and some perennials need a set number of winter hours below 45°F to fruit at all; in your zone, choose low-chill varieties.
The companion records, the spacing data and the bed planner all still apply — it's only the frost-relative dates that don't.
Get reminded at the right week
FreePlanting dates are only useful if you remember them. Tell us your zone and we'll email you when it's time to start seeds indoors, when your last frost is close, and when the autumn sowing window opens — dated for your climate, not someone else's.
Seasonal sends only — roughly one a month, more in spring. No selling your address, unsubscribe in one click. Don't know your zone?
One zone is not one climate. USDA hardiness zones are drawn from average winter minimum temperature and nothing else, so they do not determine frost dates. Two gardens in zone 11b can differ by two or three weeks depending on elevation, distance from water, and local topography. Treat this page as a starting schedule and adjust it to what your own garden has actually done. How these dates were derived →
Other zones
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