Bodfish, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bodfish, 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 Bodfish 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 Bodfish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bodfish — the short answer
Bodfish, California: USDA zone 9a, about 278 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~278
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Bodfish's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bodfish's 278-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Bodfish's own 30-year record measures about 278 days between 28°F killing freezes — 41 days shorter than Kern County's ~319. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Bodfish's ~278-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bodfish
Each reading below is measured for Bodfish itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBodfish runs about 278 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
MeasuredBodfish 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 Bodfish is in
Bodfish sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Bodfish's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Kern County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bodfish
Every plant below cleared Bodfish's own zone 9a and its 278-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bodfish?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Bodfish
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bodfish. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CALIFORNIA WATER SERVICE CO KRV LOWER BODFISHBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CALTRANSBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- 027S033E08N001MNitrate · 1.5 mi
- REICHENBACHS AUTOBODYBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SILVER CITY AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- UPPER BODFISHBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- GIBSON'S GARAGEBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- THOMAS REFUSE SERVICE, INC.Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- FIRE STATION 72Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- ALLFLEETBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- ADVANCES AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #18218Brownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bodfish'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 Bodfish.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bodfish
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bodfish
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bodfish, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bodfish — Mining (27 sites) and Brownfields (58 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Bodfish
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 Bodfish average
Your land is one point inside Bodfish
Everything above resolves to Bodfish as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Bodfish Average
Bodfish Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Bodfish
- ●One soil character for all of Bodfish
- ●Frost dates read at Bodfish's scale: Feb 26 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bodfish's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bodfish
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bodfish, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bodfish averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bodfish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bodfish average
How we know this about Bodfish
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 Bodfish’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 Bodfish
When does frost risk typically end in Bodfish?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bodfish typically lands around Feb 26, 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 Mar 19.
When is the first frost in Bodfish?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bodfish typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 278 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bodfish?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bodfish sees about 278 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 17, about 243 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bodfish?
The federal record around Bodfish is a meaningful one — 102 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (58), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Bodfish?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bodfish's scale — its 9a band and its 278-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bodfish'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 Bodfish’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bodfish's own scale — its own ~278-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,257 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bodfish's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bodfish's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 26 and Dec 1 and the ~278-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bodfish, the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bodfish's boundary and the 5,257 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~278-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bodfish sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bodfish's 5,257 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kern County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kern 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 Kern County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bodfish's 5,257 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bodfish you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,257 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Bodfish-wide figureread your own land →