Catheys Valley, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Catheys Valley, 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 Catheys Valley 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 Catheys Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Catheys Valley — the short answer
Catheys Valley, California: USDA zone 9a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- Mariposa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- Mariposa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- Mariposa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 15K 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 Mariposa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Catheys Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Catheys Valley's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Catheys Valley
Each reading below is measured for Catheys Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCatheys Valley runs about 249 days between hard freezes (read from Mariposa County, the closest normal to Catheys Valley) — 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
MeasuredCatheys Valley 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 Catheys Valley is in
Catheys Valley sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Catheys Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mariposa County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Catheys Valley
Plants matched to Catheys Valley'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 Catheys Valley?
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 Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Catheys Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Catheys Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FASTRAC EXPRESS, INC.Brownfields · 1100 ft
- CATHEYS VALLEY FOOD AND GASBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Catheys Valley Food & GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- OasisUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- JES LAND COMPANYBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- MARIPOSA COUNTY- OAK FIREBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Owl CopperMining · 4.0 mi
- HotalingMining · 4.1 mi
- CornettMining · 4.2 mi
- OrtegaMining · 4.8 mi
- KENNETH D NABORS JRBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- KEN NABORS TRUCKINGBrownfields · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Catheys Valley'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 Catheys Valley.
Total Sites
101
within ~10 miles of Catheys Valley
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Catheys Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Catheys Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Catheys Valley, Mining runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Catheys Valley. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Catheys Valley
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 Catheys Valley average
Your land is one point inside Catheys Valley
Everything above resolves to Catheys Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mariposa 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 Catheys Valley Average
Catheys Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Catheys Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Catheys Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Catheys Valley's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Catheys Valley's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Catheys Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Catheys Valley, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Catheys Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Catheys Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Catheys Valley average
How we know this about Catheys Valley
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 Mariposa 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 Catheys Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Catheys Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Catheys Valley typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 10.
When is the first frost in Catheys Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Catheys Valley typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Catheys Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Catheys Valley sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 10, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Catheys Valley?
The federal record around Catheys Valley runs heavier than most — 101 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (48), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Catheys Valley?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Catheys Valley's scale — its 9a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Catheys Valley'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 Catheys Valley’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Catheys Valley's own scale — the 15,110 acres it covers and 101 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Catheys Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 101 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Catheys Valley, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Catheys Valley's boundary and the 15,110 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Catheys Valley 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 — Catheys Valley has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mariposa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Catheys Valley's 15,110 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mariposa 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 Mariposa 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 Mariposa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Catheys Valley's 15,110 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Catheys Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,110 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Catheys Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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