Bridgeport, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, blackberry, california poppy, and pumpkin — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bridgeport, 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 Bridgeport 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 Bridgeport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bridgeport — the short answer
Bridgeport, California: USDA zone 6a, about 115 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~115
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 14K 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 6a is Bridgeport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bridgeport's 115-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bridgeport
Each reading below is measured for Bridgeport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBridgeport runs about 115 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
MeasuredBridgeport sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Bridgeport is in
Bridgeport sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Bridgeport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mono County.
What Grows in Bridgeport
Every plant below cleared Bridgeport's own zone 6a and its 115-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bridgeport?
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 May 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Bridgeport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bridgeport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONO COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- MONO COUNTY - DEPT OF PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- U.S. DOD MARINE CORPS MOUNTAIN WARFARE TRAINING CENTERToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- U.S. DOD MARINE CORPS MOUNTAIN WARFARE TRAINING CENTERBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL #820 BRIDGEPORTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- VERIZON CALIFORNIA INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- BODIE MINESuperfund · 1.0 mi
- BRIDGEPORT MTN WARFARE TRAINING CTR USMCSuperfund · 1.0 mi
- AURORA CANYON MILLSITESuperfund · 1.0 mi
- MONO COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Bridgeport Gas 'N' GoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BRIDGEPORT TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bridgeport'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 Bridgeport.
Total Sites
35
within ~10 miles of Bridgeport
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bridgeport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bridgeport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bridgeport, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bridgeport — Mining (17 sites) and Superfund (3 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.
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 Bridgeport
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 Bridgeport average
Your land is one point inside Bridgeport
Everything above resolves to Bridgeport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 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 Bridgeport Average
Bridgeport Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bridgeport
- ●One soil character for all of Bridgeport
- ●Frost dates read at Bridgeport's scale: May 31 to Sep 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bridgeport's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bridgeport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bridgeport, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bridgeport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bridgeport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bridgeport average
How we know this about Bridgeport
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 Bridgeport’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 Bridgeport
When does frost risk typically end in Bridgeport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bridgeport typically lands around May 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Bridgeport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bridgeport typically arrives around Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 9, so the watching starts about Aug 24 — about 115 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bridgeport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bridgeport sees about 115 frost-free days — roughly May 31 through Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 21 to Sep 9, about 80 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bridgeport?
The federal record around Bridgeport is a meaningful one — 35 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (17), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 gardeners stretch the season in Bridgeport?
With about 115 frost-free days between hard freezes, Bridgeport 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 143 to 171 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 31 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Bridgeport's scale — its 6a band and its 115-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bridgeport'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 Bridgeport’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bridgeport's own scale — its own ~115-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,914 acres it covers and 35 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bridgeport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bridgeport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 31 and Sep 23 and the ~115-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 35 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bridgeport, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bridgeport's boundary and the 13,914 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~115-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bridgeport's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bridgeport's 13,914 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mono County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mono 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 Mono County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bridgeport's 13,914 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bridgeport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,914 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Bridgeport-wide figureread your own land →