Acton, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Acton, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Acton lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Acton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Acton — the short answer
Acton, California: USDA zone 9a, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 25K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 25K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Acton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Acton's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Acton
Each reading below is measured for Acton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredActon runs about 267 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredActon sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Acton is in
Acton sits in the Southern California Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Acton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Los Angeles County is mostly Southern California/Northern Baja Coast. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Acton
Every plant below cleared Acton's own zone 9a and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Acton?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Acton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Acton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T AND J AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LA COUNTY SANITATION DISTRICTSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ACTON ARCO AM/PMBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ACTON ARCO AM/PMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ACTON 76Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TESORO (SHELL) 68501Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- TESORO (SHELL) 68501 (WRR 6346)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ACTON 76Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- PACIFIC BELL, AT&T CALIFORNIA, DBABrownfields · 1.0 mi
- ACTON TIRE COBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Governor MineMining · 1.4 mi
- Acton DepositMining · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Acton's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Acton.
Total Sites
615
within ~10 miles of Acton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Acton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Acton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Acton, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 452 sites within ~10 miles of Acton. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Acton
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Acton average
Your land is one point inside Acton
Everything above resolves to Acton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 25K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Acton Average
Acton Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Acton
- ●One soil character for all of Acton
- ●Frost dates read at Acton's scale: Mar 12 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Acton's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Acton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Acton, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Acton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Acton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Acton average
How we know this about Acton
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Acton’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Acton
When does frost risk typically end in Acton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Acton typically lands around Mar 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 2.
When is the first frost in Acton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Acton typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Acton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Acton sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 20, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Acton?
The federal record around Acton is a meaningful one — 615 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (452), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Acton?
From about Nov 4 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Acton's scale — its 9a band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Acton's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Acton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Acton's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 25,126 acres it covers and 615 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Acton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Acton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Dec 4 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 615 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Acton, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Acton's boundary and the 25,126 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Acton sits in the Southern California Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Acton's 25,126 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Los Angeles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Los Angeles County
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Los Angeles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Acton's 25,126 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Acton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 25,126 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Acton-wide figureread your own land →