Big Bear Lake, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Big Bear Lake, 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 Big Bear Lake 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 Big Bear Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Big Bear Lake — the short answer
Big Bear Lake, California: USDA zone 7a, about 143 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~143
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 7a is Big Bear Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Bear Lake's 143-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Bear Lake
Each reading below is measured for Big Bear Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBig Bear Lake runs about 143 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBig Bear Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Big Bear Lake is in
Big Bear Lake sits in the Southern California Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Big Bear Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: San Bernardino County is mostly Mojave Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Big Bear Lake
Every plant below cleared Big Bear Lake's own zone 7a and its 143-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Bear Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Big Bear Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Bear Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALL J PRODUCTS LLCBrownfields · 200 ft
- BIG BEAR AUTOBrownfields · 400 ft
- ELLZRAM INC DBA ELLSWORTH & RAMMELL AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 750 ft
- CARTERS GEAR BOX SHOPBrownfields · 750 ft
- CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS-BIG BEAR LAKEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- THE SALVATION ARMY'S PINE SUMMIT CAMPBrownfields · 1300 ft
- HABONIM DROR CAMP GILBOABrownfields · 1400 ft
- 002N001E20R001SNitrate · 1500 ft
- BIG 5 SPORTING GOODS #456Brownfields · 1600 ft
- STOCK'S AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- BIG BEAR GOV'T CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BEAR VALLEY PAVINGBrownfields · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Bear Lake'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 Big Bear Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Bear Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Bear Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Bear Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Big Bear Lake — Mining (14 sites) and Brownfields (117 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 Big Bear Lake
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 Big Bear Lake average
Your land is one point inside Big Bear Lake
Everything above resolves to Big Bear Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 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 Big Bear Lake Average
Big Bear Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Big Bear Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Big Bear Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Big Bear Lake's scale: May 22 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Bear Lake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Bear Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Bear Lake, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Bear Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Bear Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Bear Lake average
How we know this about Big Bear Lake
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 Big Bear Lake’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 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 Big Bear Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Big Bear Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Bear Lake typically lands around May 22, 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 Jun 12.
When is the first frost in Big Bear Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Bear Lake typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 143 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Bear Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Bear Lake sees about 143 frost-free days — roughly May 22 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 12 to Sep 28, about 108 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Bear Lake?
The federal record around Big Bear Lake is a meaningful one — 193 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (117), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Big Bear Lake?
With about 143 frost-free days between hard freezes, Big Bear Lake rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 171 to 199 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 22 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Big Bear Lake's scale — its 7a band and its 143-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Bear Lake'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 Big Bear Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Big Bear Lake's own scale — its own ~143-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,001 acres it covers and 193 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Bear Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Big Bear Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 22 and Oct 12 and the ~143-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 193 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Bear Lake, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Bear Lake's boundary and the 4,001 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~143-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Big Bear Lake sits in the Southern California Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Big Bear Lake's 4,001 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Bernardino County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Bear Lake's 4,001 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Bear Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,001 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 Big Bear Lake-wide figureread your own land →