Ahwahnee, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ahwahnee, 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 Ahwahnee 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 Ahwahnee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ahwahnee — the short answer
Ahwahnee, California: USDA zone 9a, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~296
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Ahwahnee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ahwahnee's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ahwahnee
Each reading below is measured for Ahwahnee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAhwahnee runs about 296 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
MeasuredAhwahnee 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 Ahwahnee is in
Ahwahnee sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Ahwahnee's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Madera County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ahwahnee
Every plant below cleared Ahwahnee's own zone 9a and its 296-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ahwahnee?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Ahwahnee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ahwahnee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY INC DBA BIO TECHBrownfields · 2600 ft
- AHWAHNEE QUIK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 007S021E06D001MNitrate · 0.6 mi
- SIERRA MEADOWS COUNTRY CLUBBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- USDA USFS R05 MADERA CABrownfields · 1.3 mi
- SALLY CONDONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 007S021E04E001MNitrate · 1.8 mi
- Enterprise MineMining · 2.1 mi
- 007S020E03Q001MNitrate · 2.9 mi
- LEMIRE TRACTOR INCBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- KAISER PERMANENTE OAKHURST MEDICAL OFFICESBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- BRYANT HOME CTR DBA TRUE VALUE HOME CTRBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ahwahnee'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 Ahwahnee.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ahwahnee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ahwahnee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ahwahnee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ahwahnee — Mining (13 sites) and Brownfields (75 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Ahwahnee
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 Ahwahnee average
Your land is one point inside Ahwahnee
Everything above resolves to Ahwahnee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Ahwahnee Average
Ahwahnee Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ahwahnee
- ●One soil character for all of Ahwahnee
- ●Frost dates read at Ahwahnee's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ahwahnee's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ahwahnee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ahwahnee, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ahwahnee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ahwahnee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ahwahnee average
How we know this about Ahwahnee
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 Ahwahnee’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 Ahwahnee
When does frost risk typically end in Ahwahnee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ahwahnee typically lands around Feb 17, 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 Mar 10.
When is the first frost in Ahwahnee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ahwahnee typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 296 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ahwahnee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ahwahnee sees about 296 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 26, about 261 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ahwahnee?
The federal record around Ahwahnee is a meaningful one — 136 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (75), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Ahwahnee?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ahwahnee's scale — its 9a band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ahwahnee'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 Ahwahnee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ahwahnee's own scale — its own ~296-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,388 acres it covers and 136 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ahwahnee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ahwahnee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 17 and Dec 10 and the ~296-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 136 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ahwahnee, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ahwahnee's boundary and the 7,388 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~296-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ahwahnee sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal 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 Ahwahnee's 7,388 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madera County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madera 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 Madera County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ahwahnee's 7,388 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ahwahnee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,388 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Ahwahnee-wide figureread your own land →
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