Caspar, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — avocado, meyer lemon, tomato, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Caspar, 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 Caspar 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 Caspar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Caspar — the short answer
Caspar, California: USDA zone 10a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Mendocino County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Caspar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Caspar's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Caspar
Each reading below is measured for Caspar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCaspar runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Mendocino County, the closest normal to Caspar) — 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
MeasuredCaspar sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Caspar is in
Caspar sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Caspar's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mendocino County is mostly Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Caspar
Plants matched to Caspar's USDA zones 10a, 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 Caspar?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Caspar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Caspar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 2400 ft
- POINT CABRILLO LIGHTSTATION STATE PARKBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS POINT CABRILLO LIGHT STATION SHPBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MRC FORT BRAGGBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- LOUSIANA PACIFIC-FORT BRAGG STUDMILLToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- SOLID WASTE OF WILLITS INC DBA CASPAR TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- FORT BRAGG DIESELBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS RUSSIAN GULCH SPBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- STEVE'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- 018N017W19M001MNitrate · 2.9 mi
- UPS- FORT BRAGGBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- DANS DIVING SERVICEBrownfields · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Caspar'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 Caspar.
Total Sites
140
within ~10 miles of Caspar
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Caspar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Caspar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Caspar, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Caspar — Superfund (3 sites) and Brownfields (117 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Caspar
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 Caspar average
Your land is one point inside Caspar
Everything above resolves to Caspar as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mendocino 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 Caspar Average
Caspar Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Caspar
- ●One soil character for all of Caspar
- ●Frost dates read at Caspar's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Caspar's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Caspar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Caspar, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Caspar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Caspar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Caspar average
How we know this about Caspar
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 Mendocino 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 Caspar
When does frost risk typically end in Caspar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Caspar typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Caspar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Caspar typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Caspar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Caspar sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 22, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Caspar?
The federal record around Caspar is a meaningful one — 140 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (117), 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 Caspar?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Caspar's scale — its 10a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Caspar'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 Caspar’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Caspar's own scale — the 1,915 acres it covers and 140 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Caspar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 140 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Caspar, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Caspar's boundary and the 1,915 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Caspar sits in the Coast Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Caspar has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mendocino County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Caspar's 1,915 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mendocino 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 Mendocino 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 Mendocino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Caspar's 1,915 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Caspar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,915 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 Caspar-wide figureread your own land →