Anchor Bay, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Anchor Bay, 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 Anchor Bay 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 Anchor Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Anchor Bay — the short answer
Anchor Bay, California: USDA zone 9b, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Mendocino County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Anchor Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Anchor Bay's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Anchor Bay
Each reading below is measured for Anchor Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAnchor Bay runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Mendocino County, the closest normal to Anchor Bay) — 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
MeasuredAnchor Bay sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Anchor Bay is in
Anchor Bay sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Anchor Bay's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mendocino County is mostly Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Anchor Bay
Plants matched to Anchor Bay's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Anchor Bay?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Anchor Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Anchor Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PATRICIA WILSON & JIM MIKELICHBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MENDOCINO SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- ERIC RAY NELSEN, ERIC'S HOME REPAIRBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- JR'S AUTO CARE CENTERBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- Gualala ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- GUALALA UNION 76Brownfields · 3.8 mi
- Gualala Unocal 76Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- SURF SUPER MARKET INC.Brownfields · 3.8 mi
- PACIFIC BELL C/O ALLEN TD043Brownfields · 3.9 mi
- THE SEA RANCH GOLF LINKSBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- PACIFIC BELL TELEPHONE CO DBA AT&T CALIFBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- AT&T California - TD131Underground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Anchor Bay'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 Anchor Bay.
Total Sites
31
within ~10 miles of Anchor Bay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Anchor Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Anchor Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Anchor Bay, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Anchor Bay — Mining (4 sites) and Brownfields (19 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Anchor Bay
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 Anchor Bay average
Your land is one point inside Anchor Bay
Everything above resolves to Anchor Bay as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mendocino County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Anchor Bay Average
Anchor Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Anchor Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Anchor Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Anchor Bay's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Anchor Bay's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Anchor Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Anchor Bay, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Anchor Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Anchor Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Anchor Bay average
How we know this about Anchor Bay
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 Mendocino County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Anchor Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Anchor Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Anchor Bay typically lands around Feb 5, 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 Feb 26.
When is the first frost in Anchor Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Anchor Bay typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Anchor Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Anchor Bay sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 22, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Anchor Bay?
The federal record around Anchor Bay is a meaningful one — 31 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (19), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Anchor Bay?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Anchor Bay's scale — its 9b band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Anchor Bay'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 Anchor Bay’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Anchor Bay's own scale — the 2,248 acres it covers and 31 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Anchor Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 31 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Anchor Bay, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Anchor Bay's boundary and the 2,248 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Anchor Bay sits in the Coast Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Anchor Bay has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mendocino County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Anchor Bay's 2,248 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mendocino County
- The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mendocino 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 Mendocino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Anchor Bay's 2,248 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Anchor Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,248 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Anchor Bay-wide figureread your own land →