Berry Creek, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Berry Creek, 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 Berry Creek 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 Berry Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Berry Creek — the short answer
Berry Creek, California: USDA zone 9a, about 332 days between hard freezes, across 37K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~332
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 37K 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 Butte County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Berry Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Berry Creek's 332-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Berry Creek
Each reading below is measured for Berry Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBerry Creek runs about 332 days between hard freezes (read from Butte County, the closest normal to Berry Creek) — 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
MeasuredBerry Creek 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 Berry Creek is in
Berry Creek sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Berry Creek's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Butte County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Berry Creek
Plants matched to Berry Creek's USDA zones 9a, 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 Berry Creek?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Berry Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Berry Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VILLAGE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- VILLAGE MARKETBrownfields · 2200 ft
- 020N005E02A001MNitrate · 1.7 mi
- USDA USFS R05 OROVILLE RANGER DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Jacks RanchMining · 2.4 mi
- 021N005E36H001MNitrate · 2.6 mi
- BIG BEND MINESuperfund · 4.2 mi
- Big BendMining · 4.3 mi
- Pinkston MineMining · 4.4 mi
- Evening Star ClaimMining · 4.4 mi
- Bloomer HillMining · 4.5 mi
- Surcease Bunker Hill and Treasure HillMining · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Berry Creek'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 Berry Creek.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Berry Creek
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Berry Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Berry Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Berry Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Berry Creek — Mining (55 sites) and Superfund (3 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Berry Creek
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 Berry Creek average
Your land is one point inside Berry Creek
Everything above resolves to Berry Creek as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 37K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Butte 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 Berry Creek Average
Berry Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Berry Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Berry Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Berry Creek's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Berry Creek's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Berry Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Berry Creek, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Berry Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Berry Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Berry Creek average
How we know this about Berry Creek
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 Butte 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 Berry Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Berry Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Berry Creek typically lands around Jan 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Berry Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Berry Creek typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 332 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Berry Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Berry Creek sees about 332 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 3, about 297 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Berry Creek?
The federal record around Berry Creek runs heavier than most — 102 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Berry Creek?
From about Nov 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Berry Creek's scale — its 9a band and its 332-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Berry Creek'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 Berry Creek’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Berry Creek's own scale — the 36,557 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Berry Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Berry Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Berry Creek's boundary and the 36,557 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Berry Creek sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Berry Creek has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Butte County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Berry Creek's 36,557 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butte 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 Butte 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 Butte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Berry Creek's 36,557 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Berry Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 36,557 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Berry Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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