Avery, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Avery, 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 Avery 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 Avery — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Avery — the short answer
Avery, California: USDA zone 8b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 584 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 584 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 8b is Avery's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Avery's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Avery's own 30-year record measures about 246 days between 28°F killing freezes — 42 days shorter than Calaveras County's ~288. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Avery's ~246-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Avery
Each reading below is measured for Avery itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAvery runs about 246 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredAvery sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Avery is in
Avery sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Avery's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Calaveras County is mostly Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Avery
Every plant below cleared Avery's own zone 8b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Avery?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Avery
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Avery. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUICK LUBEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- JOHNSONS TOWINGBrownfields · 1600 ft
- TOM'S AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- ACKERSON AUTOBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Camp Connell General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- RENE FAUGHT RESTORATIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- ADVANCED AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- USDA USFS R05 DORRINGTON CABrownfields · 1.1 mi
- USDA USFS R05 CALAVERAS RD (STANISLAUS NATIONAL FOREST)Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- CAL FIRE ARNOLD/SKULL CREEK STATIONBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- MEADOWMONT CHEVRONBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #16311Brownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Avery'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 Avery.
Total Sites
105
within ~10 miles of Avery
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Avery
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Avery
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Avery, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Avery — Mining (32 sites) and Brownfields (62 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 Avery
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 Avery average
Your land is one point inside Avery
Everything above resolves to Avery as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Avery Average
Avery Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Avery
- ●One soil character for all of Avery
- ●Frost dates read at Avery's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Avery's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Avery
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Avery, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Avery averages can't show:
We read public map data around Avery — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Avery average
How we know this about Avery
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 Avery’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 Avery
When does frost risk typically end in Avery?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Avery typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Avery?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Avery typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Avery?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Avery sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 11, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Avery?
The federal record around Avery runs heavier than most — 105 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (62), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Avery?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Avery's scale — its 8b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Avery'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 Avery’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Avery's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 584 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Avery's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Avery's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 25 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Avery, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Avery's boundary and the 584 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Avery sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Avery's 584 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calaveras County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calaveras 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 Calaveras County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Avery's 584 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Avery you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 584 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Avery-wide figureread your own land →