Auburn, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Auburn, 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 Auburn 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 Auburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Auburn — the short answer
Auburn, California: USDA zone 9b, about 290 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Placer County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Placer County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~290
- Placer County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Placer County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Auburn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Auburn's 290-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Auburn
Each reading below is measured for Auburn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAuburn runs about 290 days between hard freezes (read from Placer County, the closest normal to Auburn) — 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
MeasuredAuburn 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 Auburn is in
Auburn sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Auburn's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Placer County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Auburn
Every plant below cleared Auburn's own zone 9b and its 290-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Auburn?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (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. 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 Auburn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Auburn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SIERRA MOON GOLDSMITHSBrownfields · 450 ft
- G&G VENTURES INC DBA AUBURN VALEROBrownfields · 700 ft
- AUBURN VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SUTHERLAND PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, INC.Brownfields · 1100 ft
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SIERRA SAWBrownfields · 1200 ft
- PLACER HIGH SCHOOL/AUTO PROGRAMSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- MERITAGE AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1500 ft
- AT&T California - TB005Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- AUBURN ARMORYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- INTERNATIONAL LINE BUILDERS, INC.Brownfields · 1600 ft
- CUPERTINO ELECTRIC INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Auburn'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 Auburn.
Total Sites
738
within ~10 miles of Auburn
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Auburn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Auburn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Auburn, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Auburn — Mining (155 sites) and Brownfields (505 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 Auburn
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 Auburn average
Your land is one point inside Auburn
Everything above resolves to Auburn as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Placer County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Auburn Average
Auburn Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Auburn
- ●One soil character for all of Auburn
- ●Frost dates read at Auburn's scale: Feb 23 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Auburn's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Auburn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Auburn, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Auburn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Auburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Auburn average
How we know this about Auburn
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Placer 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Auburn
When does frost risk typically end in Auburn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Auburn typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Auburn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Auburn 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 290 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Auburn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Auburn sees about 290 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 26, about 255 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Auburn?
The federal record around Auburn runs heavier than most — 738 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (505), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Auburn?
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 Auburn's scale — its 9b band and its 290-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Auburn'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 Auburn’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Auburn's own scale — the 4,593 acres it covers and 738 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Auburn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 738 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Auburn, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Auburn's boundary and the 4,593 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~290-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Auburn 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
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Auburn has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Placer County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Auburn's 4,593 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Placer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Placer 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 Placer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Auburn's 4,593 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Auburn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,593 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Auburn-wide figureread your own land →