Alpine Village, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alpine Village, 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 Alpine Village 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 Alpine Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alpine Village — the short answer
Alpine Village, California: USDA zone 7a, about 153 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~153
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 7a is Alpine Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alpine Village's 153-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alpine Village
Each reading below is measured for Alpine Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlpine Village runs about 153 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAlpine Village sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Alpine Village is in
Alpine Village sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Alpine Village's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Alpine County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Alpine Village
Every plant below cleared Alpine Village's own zone 7a and its 153-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alpine Village?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Alpine Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alpine Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALPINE COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- 011N019E35R001MNitrate · 0.9 mi
- ALPINE COUNTY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ALPINE COUNTY UNIFIED SCOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 105 N11 E20 31CABD2 USGS CVR-1ANitrate · 1.5 mi
- Black JackMining · 3.7 mi
- East Section 11 ProspectMining · 3.7 mi
- USDA USFS R05 MARKLEEVILLE CABrownfields · 4.0 mi
- Alpine FairviewMining · 4.5 mi
- Alpine Fairview MineMining · 4.5 mi
- CAL TRANSBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- 105 N11 E20 06BDA 1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alpine Village'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 Alpine Village.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alpine Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alpine Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alpine Village, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Alpine Village — Nitrate (172 sites) and Mining (35 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Alpine Village
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 Alpine Village average
Your land is one point inside Alpine Village
Everything above resolves to Alpine Village as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Alpine Village Average
Alpine Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Alpine Village
- ●One soil character for all of Alpine Village
- ●Frost dates read at Alpine Village's scale: May 13 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alpine Village's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alpine Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alpine Village, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alpine Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alpine Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alpine Village average
How we know this about Alpine Village
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 Alpine Village’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 Alpine Village
When does frost risk typically end in Alpine Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alpine Village typically lands around May 13, 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 Jun 3.
When is the first frost in Alpine Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alpine Village typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 153 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alpine Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alpine Village sees about 153 frost-free days — roughly May 13 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 3 to Sep 29, about 118 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alpine Village?
The federal record around Alpine Village runs heavier than most — 233 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (172), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Alpine Village?
From about Sep 13 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 Oct 13 (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 Oct 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alpine Village's scale — its 7a band and its 153-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alpine Village'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 Alpine Village’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alpine Village's own scale — its own ~153-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,612 acres it covers and 233 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alpine Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alpine Village's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 13 and Oct 13 and the ~153-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alpine Village, the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alpine Village's boundary and the 2,612 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~153-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Alpine Village sits in the Central Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alpine Village's 2,612 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alpine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alpine 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 Alpine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alpine Village's 2,612 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alpine Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,612 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Alpine Village-wide figureread your own land →