Biggs, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Biggs, 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 Biggs 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 Biggs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Biggs — the short answer
Biggs, California: USDA zone 9b, about 332 days between hard freezes, across 573 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- 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
- City area
- 573 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 9b is Biggs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Biggs's 332-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Biggs
Each reading below is measured for Biggs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBiggs runs about 332 days between hard freezes (read from Butte County, the closest normal to Biggs) — 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
MeasuredBiggs 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 Biggs is in
Biggs sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Biggs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Butte County.
What Grows in Biggs
Every plant below cleared Biggs's own zone 9b and its 332-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Biggs?
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 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 Biggs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Biggs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUNWEST MILLING CO INCBrownfields · 200 ft
- 018N002E14K001MNitrate · 1100 ft
- COKER FARMSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- TOP QUALITY DIESEL REPAIRBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BUTTE COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CITY OF BIGGS - PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- ALL STOP MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ALL STOP MARKETBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CHEROKEE FARMS GPBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BUSD - BUS BARNBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PATANE FARMS, FIELD SERVICES LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- JAMES D BECK FARMINGBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Biggs'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 Biggs.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Biggs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Biggs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Biggs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Biggs — Nitrate (166 sites) and Brownfields (256 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Biggs
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 Biggs average
Your land is one point inside Biggs
Everything above resolves to Biggs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 573 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Butte County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Biggs Average
Biggs Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Biggs
- ●One soil character for all of Biggs
- ●Frost dates read at Biggs's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Biggs's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Biggs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Biggs, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Biggs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Biggs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Biggs average
How we know this about Biggs
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 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 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 Biggs
When does frost risk typically end in Biggs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Biggs 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 Biggs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Biggs 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 Biggs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Biggs 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 Biggs?
The federal record around Biggs runs heavier than most — 453 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (256), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Biggs?
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 Biggs's scale — its 9b band and its 332-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Biggs'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 Biggs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Biggs's own scale — the 573 acres it covers and 453 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Biggs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 453 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Biggs, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Biggs's boundary and the 573 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~332-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Biggs's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Biggs 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 Biggs's 573 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butte County
- 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 Biggs's 573 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Biggs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 573 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 Biggs-wide figureread your own land →
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