Auburn Lake Trails, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Auburn Lake Trails, 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 Lake Trails 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 Lake Trails — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Auburn Lake Trails — the short answer
Auburn Lake Trails, California: USDA zone 9b, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 El Dorado County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Auburn Lake Trails's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Auburn Lake Trails's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Auburn Lake Trails
Each reading below is measured for Auburn Lake Trails itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAuburn Lake Trails runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from El Dorado County, the closest normal to Auburn Lake Trails) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAuburn Lake Trails 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 Lake Trails is in
Auburn Lake Trails sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Auburn Lake Trails's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: El Dorado County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Auburn Lake Trails
Plants matched to Auburn Lake Trails'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 Auburn Lake Trails?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Auburn Lake Trails
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Auburn Lake Trails. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 012N009E17R001MNitrate · 0.5 mi
- HomesteadMining · 1.0 mi
- EL DORADO COUNTY / DEPT OF ENVIRON MGMNTBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- AUBURN LAKE TRAILS PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATIONBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- NORTH STATE GROCERY INC DBA HOLIDAY MARKETBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Bunker HillMining · 1.9 mi
- THE GARAGE AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE & REPAIRBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- CrystalMining · 2.0 mi
- COOL ANIMAL HOSPITAL -ANIMAL MEDICAL CTRBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #42084Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 42084Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- SIERRA ENERGY #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Auburn Lake Trails'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 Lake Trails.
Total Sites
645
within ~10 miles of Auburn Lake Trails
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Auburn Lake Trails
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Auburn Lake Trails
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Auburn Lake Trails, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Auburn Lake Trails — Mining (173 sites) and Brownfields (400 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 Lake Trails
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 Lake Trails average
Your land is one point inside Auburn Lake Trails
Everything above resolves to Auburn Lake Trails as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from El Dorado 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 Auburn Lake Trails Average
Auburn Lake Trails Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Auburn Lake Trails
- ●One soil character for all of Auburn Lake Trails
- ●Frost dates read at Auburn Lake Trails's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Auburn Lake Trails's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Auburn Lake Trails
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Auburn Lake Trails, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Auburn Lake Trails averages can't show:
We read public map data around Auburn Lake Trails — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Auburn Lake Trails average
How we know this about Auburn Lake Trails
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 El Dorado 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 Auburn Lake Trails
When does frost risk typically end in Auburn Lake Trails?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Auburn Lake Trails typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Auburn Lake Trails?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Auburn Lake Trails typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Auburn Lake Trails?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Auburn Lake Trails sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 15, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Auburn Lake Trails?
The federal record around Auburn Lake Trails runs heavier than most — 645 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (400), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Auburn Lake Trails?
From about Oct 30 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 Nov 29 (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 Nov 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Auburn Lake Trails's scale — its 9b band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Auburn Lake Trails'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 Lake Trails’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Auburn Lake Trails's own scale — the 8,145 acres it covers and 645 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Auburn Lake Trails's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 645 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Auburn Lake Trails, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Auburn Lake Trails's boundary and the 8,145 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Auburn Lake Trails 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 Lake Trails has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom El Dorado County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Auburn Lake Trails's 8,145 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Dorado 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 El Dorado 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 El Dorado County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Auburn Lake Trails's 8,145 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Auburn Lake Trails you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,145 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Auburn Lake Trails-wide figureread your own land →
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