Camp Nelson, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Camp Nelson, 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 Camp Nelson 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 Camp Nelson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Camp Nelson — the short answer
Camp Nelson, California: USDA zone 8b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 792 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 792 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 8b is Camp Nelson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Camp Nelson's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Camp Nelson
Each reading below is measured for Camp Nelson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCamp Nelson runs about 216 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCamp Nelson sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Camp Nelson is in
Camp Nelson sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Camp Nelson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tulare County.
What Grows in Camp Nelson
Every plant below cleared Camp Nelson's own zone 8b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Camp Nelson?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Camp Nelson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Camp Nelson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 020S031E33M001MNitrate · 0.9 mi
- Elder BerryMining · 2.6 mi
- Arsenic and Soda SpringsMining · 2.6 mi
- McgeorgeMining · 2.6 mi
- Iron CappingMining · 3.4 mi
- Iron Capping GroupMining · 3.6 mi
- Barber-WittMining · 4.0 mi
- PG&E TULE HYDRO PLANTBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- Mountain View MineMining · 5.1 mi
- Elster ClaimMining · 5.2 mi
- Thunder Shower & Buckhead ZincMining · 5.2 mi
- Thunder Shower and Buckhead ZincMining · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Camp Nelson'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 Camp Nelson.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Camp Nelson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Camp Nelson, Mining runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Camp Nelson. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Camp Nelson
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 Camp Nelson average
Your land is one point inside Camp Nelson
Everything above resolves to Camp Nelson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 792 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 Camp Nelson Average
Camp Nelson Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Camp Nelson
- ●One soil character for all of Camp Nelson
- ●Frost dates read at Camp Nelson's scale: Apr 17 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Camp Nelson's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Camp Nelson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Camp Nelson, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Camp Nelson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Camp Nelson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Camp Nelson average
How we know this about Camp Nelson
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 Camp Nelson’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 Camp Nelson
When does frost risk typically end in Camp Nelson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Camp Nelson typically lands around Apr 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 May 8.
When is the first frost in Camp Nelson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Camp Nelson typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Camp Nelson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Camp Nelson sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Nov 5, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Camp Nelson?
The federal record around Camp Nelson is a meaningful one — 35 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (28), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Camp Nelson?
From about Oct 20 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 Nov 19 (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 Nov 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Camp Nelson's scale — its 8b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Camp Nelson'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 Camp Nelson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Camp Nelson's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 792 acres it covers and 35 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Camp Nelson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Camp Nelson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Nov 19 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 35 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Camp Nelson, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Camp Nelson's boundary and the 792 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Camp Nelson's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Camp Nelson's 792 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tulare County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tulare 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 Tulare County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Camp Nelson's 792 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Camp Nelson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 792 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Camp Nelson-wide figureread your own land →
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