Cabazon, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cabazon, 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 Cabazon 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 Cabazon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cabazon — the short answer
Cabazon, California: USDA zone 9b, about 336 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~336
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 9b is Cabazon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cabazon's 336-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cabazon
Each reading below is measured for Cabazon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCabazon runs about 336 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
MeasuredCabazon sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Cabazon is in
Cabazon sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Cabazon's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Riverside County is mostly Sonoran Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cabazon
Every plant below cleared Cabazon's own zone 9b and its 336-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cabazon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 22 — 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 Cabazon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cabazon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE FLEET SERVICESBrownfields · 1600 ft
- GENERAL TELPHONE OF CABrownfields · 1800 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #17975Brownfields · 2000 ft
- Nino Convenience RetailUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BANAIRE ENTERPRISESSuperfund · 0.5 mi
- FEDEX FREIGHTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- THE SOCO GROUPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SCR 81 Cabazon ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BANAIRE RADIUM TRAILERSSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- 003S002E10N003SNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 003S002E10N004SNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 003S002E10N002SNitrate · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cabazon'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 Cabazon.
Total Sites
349
within ~10 miles of Cabazon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cabazon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cabazon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cabazon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cabazon — Nitrate (130 sites) and Brownfields (188 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Cabazon
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 Cabazon average
Your land is one point inside Cabazon
Everything above resolves to Cabazon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Cabazon Average
Cabazon Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Cabazon
- ●One soil character for all of Cabazon
- ●Frost dates read at Cabazon's scale: Jan 20 to Dec 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cabazon's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cabazon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cabazon, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cabazon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cabazon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cabazon average
How we know this about Cabazon
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 Cabazon’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 Cabazon
When does frost risk typically end in Cabazon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cabazon typically lands around Jan 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Cabazon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cabazon typically arrives around Dec 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 8, so the watching starts about Nov 22 — about 336 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cabazon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cabazon sees about 336 frost-free days — roughly Jan 20 through Dec 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 10 to Dec 8, about 301 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cabazon?
The federal record around Cabazon is a meaningful one — 349 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (188), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Cabazon?
From about Nov 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cabazon's scale — its 9b band and its 336-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cabazon'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 Cabazon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cabazon's own scale — its own ~336-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,132 acres it covers and 349 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cabazon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cabazon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 20 and Dec 22 and the ~336-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 349 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cabazon, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cabazon's boundary and the 3,132 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~336-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cabazon sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cabazon's 3,132 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Riverside County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Riverside 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 Riverside County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cabazon's 3,132 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cabazon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,132 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Cabazon-wide figureread your own land →
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