Bishop, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bishop, 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 Bishop 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 Bishop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bishop — the short answer
Bishop, California: USDA zone 8a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 8a is Bishop's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bishop's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bishop
Each reading below is measured for Bishop itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBishop runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBishop sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Bishop is in
Bishop sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Bishop's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Inyo County is mostly Mojave Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bishop
Every plant below cleared Bishop's own zone 8a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bishop?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Bishop
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bishop. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TIGER TOTE INC DBA GIGGLE SPRINGSBrownfields · 150 ft
- GIGGLE SPRINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- KAY VEE JAY SALES INC DBA BISHOP GAS & MINI MARTBrownfields · 350 ft
- Dino Gas MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- MR K AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 650 ft
- VONS FUEL STATION 1753Brownfields · 950 ft
- WHITE MTN RANGER STATIONBrownfields · 1000 ft
- INYO MONO SHOPBrownfields · 1000 ft
- BISHOP DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BARNETT GATRELL EQUIP RENTALSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- PHILLIPS CAMERA HOUSEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- 007S033E06P002MNitrate · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bishop'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 Bishop.
Total Sites
151
within ~10 miles of Bishop
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bishop
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bishop
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bishop, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bishop — Mining (29 sites) and Brownfields (79 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Bishop
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 Bishop average
Your land is one point inside Bishop
Everything above resolves to Bishop as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Bishop Average
Bishop Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bishop
- ●One soil character for all of Bishop
- ●Frost dates read at Bishop's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bishop's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bishop
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bishop, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bishop averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bishop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bishop average
How we know this about Bishop
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 Bishop’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 Bishop
When does frost risk typically end in Bishop?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bishop typically lands around Apr 13, 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 May 4.
When is the first frost in Bishop?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bishop typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bishop?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bishop sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 12, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bishop?
The federal record around Bishop is a meaningful one — 151 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (79), 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 I protect my plants from frost in Bishop?
From about Sep 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 Oct 26 (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 Oct 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bishop's scale — its 8a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bishop'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 Bishop’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bishop's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,193 acres it covers and 151 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bishop's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bishop's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 26 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bishop, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bishop's boundary and the 1,193 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bishop sits in the Central Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bishop's 1,193 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Inyo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Inyo 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 Inyo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bishop's 1,193 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bishop you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,193 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 Bishop-wide figureread your own land →