Ballard, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ballard, 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 Ballard 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 Ballard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ballard — the short answer
Ballard, California: USDA zone 9a, about 309 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~309
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 9a is Ballard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ballard's 309-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ballard
Each reading below is measured for Ballard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBallard runs about 309 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredBallard sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Ballard is in
Ballard sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Ballard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Barbara County.
What Grows in Ballard
Every plant below cleared Ballard's own zone 9a and its 309-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ballard?
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 Jan 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 31 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Ballard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ballard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 007N031W35K004SNitrate · 1100 ft
- 007N031W36L002SNitrate · 0.7 mi
- FARM AND RANCH EQUIPMENT SERVICE SHOPBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- 006N031W01P003SNitrate · 1.3 mi
- TIERRA ALTA VINEYARDBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- MBK & JONATA VINEYARDBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- DON RATTNERBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- LOS OLIVOS MOTORSBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- MINETTI & SON TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- 007N031W23N005SNitrate · 2.0 mi
- 007N030W31J001SNitrate · 2.2 mi
- 006N030W07C004SNitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ballard'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 Ballard.
Total Sites
312
within ~10 miles of Ballard
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ballard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ballard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ballard, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ballard — Nitrate (140 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Ballard
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 Ballard average
Your land is one point inside Ballard
Everything above resolves to Ballard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Ballard Average
Ballard Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ballard
- ●One soil character for all of Ballard
- ●Frost dates read at Ballard's scale: Jan 31 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ballard's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ballard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ballard, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ballard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ballard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ballard average
How we know this about Ballard
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 Ballard’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 Ballard
When does frost risk typically end in Ballard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ballard typically lands around Jan 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Ballard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ballard 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 309 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ballard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ballard sees about 309 frost-free days — roughly Jan 31 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 21 to Nov 22, about 274 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ballard?
The federal record around Ballard is a meaningful one — 312 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (141), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Ballard?
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 Ballard's scale — its 9a band and its 309-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ballard'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 Ballard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ballard's own scale — its own ~309-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,788 acres it covers and 312 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ballard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ballard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 31 and Dec 6 and the ~309-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 312 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ballard, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ballard's boundary and the 1,788 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~309-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ballard's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ballard's 1,788 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Barbara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ballard's 1,788 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ballard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,788 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Ballard-wide figureread your own land →