Brooks, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Brooks, 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 Brooks 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 Brooks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brooks — the short answer
Brooks, California: USDA zone 9a, about 334 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 17
- Yolo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Yolo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~334
- Yolo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Yolo County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Brooks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brooks's 334-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brooks
Each reading below is measured for Brooks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBrooks runs about 334 days between hard freezes (read from Yolo County, the closest normal to Brooks) — 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
MeasuredBrooks 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 Brooks is in
Brooks sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Brooks's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Yolo County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Brooks
Plants matched to Brooks's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Brooks?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 17 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Brooks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brooks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAL FIREBrownfields · 450 ft
- CACHE CREEK CASINO RESORTBrownfields · 1700 ft
- 010N003W11A001MNitrate · 0.5 mi
- GORDON FARMS INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- G3 RANCHBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- RED FOX RANCHBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Cache Creek Casino ResortPFAS · 2.8 mi
- HOLLAND RANCHBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- CAPAY VALLEY RANCHESBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- RIVERDOG FARMBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- CAPAY INCBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- CALIFORNIA GARDEN GIRLSBrownfields · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brooks'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 Brooks.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brooks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brooks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brooks, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Brooks — Mining (9 sites) and Nitrate (30 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Brooks
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 Brooks average
Your land is one point inside Brooks
Everything above resolves to Brooks as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yolo County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Brooks Average
Brooks Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Brooks
- ●One soil character for all of Brooks
- ●Frost dates read at Brooks's scale: Jan 17 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brooks's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brooks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brooks, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brooks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brooks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brooks average
How we know this about Brooks
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 Yolo 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 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 Brooks
When does frost risk typically end in Brooks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brooks typically lands around Jan 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Brooks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brooks 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 334 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brooks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brooks sees about 334 frost-free days — roughly Jan 17 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 7 to Dec 3, about 299 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brooks?
The federal record around Brooks shows 76 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (36), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Brooks?
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 Brooks's scale — its 9a band and its 334-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brooks'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 Brooks’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Brooks's own scale — the 2,755 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brooks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brooks, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brooks's boundary and the 2,755 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Brooks sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Brooks has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yolo County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brooks's 2,755 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yolo County
- The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yolo 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 Yolo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brooks's 2,755 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brooks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,755 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 Brooks-wide figureread your own land →