Buttonwillow, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Buttonwillow, 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 Buttonwillow 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 Buttonwillow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Buttonwillow — the short answer
Buttonwillow, California: USDA zone 9a, about 319 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 23
- Kern County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Kern County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~319
- Kern County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Kern County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Buttonwillow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buttonwillow's 319-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buttonwillow
Each reading below is measured for Buttonwillow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsButtonwillow runs about 319 days between hard freezes (read from Kern County, the closest normal to Buttonwillow) — 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
MeasuredButtonwillow 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 Buttonwillow is in
Buttonwillow sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Buttonwillow's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kern County.
What Grows in Buttonwillow
Plants matched to Buttonwillow'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 Buttonwillow?
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 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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 Buttonwillow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buttonwillow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BAGGIANI & ISOLA #000976Brownfields · 2400 ft
- FARMERS CO-OP GIN INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CHEVRON USA INC LOKERN STABrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PG&E MIDWAY SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 029S024E08L002MNitrate · 1.0 mi
- BUTTONWILLOW SIMPLOT SOILBUILDERSBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- SERVICE YARD - BUTTONWILLOWBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- R AND S TRANSPORT RAMON GUTIERREZBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- KERN COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- 029S023E14R001MNitrate · 1.5 mi
- EAGLE TRACTOR COBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- BUTTONWILLOW HEALTH CENTERBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buttonwillow'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 Buttonwillow.
Total Sites
276
within ~10 miles of Buttonwillow
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buttonwillow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buttonwillow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buttonwillow, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Buttonwillow — Nitrate (124 sites) and Brownfields (135 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Buttonwillow
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 Buttonwillow average
Your land is one point inside Buttonwillow
Everything above resolves to Buttonwillow as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kern 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 Buttonwillow Average
Buttonwillow Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Buttonwillow
- ●One soil character for all of Buttonwillow
- ●Frost dates read at Buttonwillow's scale: Jan 23 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buttonwillow's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buttonwillow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buttonwillow, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buttonwillow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buttonwillow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buttonwillow average
How we know this about Buttonwillow
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 Kern 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 Buttonwillow
When does frost risk typically end in Buttonwillow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buttonwillow typically lands around Jan 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Buttonwillow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buttonwillow typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 319 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buttonwillow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buttonwillow sees about 319 frost-free days — roughly Jan 23 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 13 to Nov 24, about 284 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buttonwillow?
The federal record around Buttonwillow is a meaningful one — 276 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (135), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Buttonwillow?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Buttonwillow's scale — its 9a band and its 319-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buttonwillow'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 Buttonwillow’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Buttonwillow's own scale — the 4,433 acres it covers and 276 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buttonwillow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 276 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buttonwillow, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buttonwillow's boundary and the 4,433 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Buttonwillow's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Buttonwillow has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kern County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Buttonwillow's 4,433 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kern 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 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 Buttonwillow's 4,433 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buttonwillow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,433 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Buttonwillow-wide figureread your own land →