Cedar Flat, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cedar Flat, 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 Cedar Flat 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 Cedar Flat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cedar Flat — the short answer
Cedar Flat, California: USDA zone 7a, about 138 days between hard freezes, across 691 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~138
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 691 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 7a is Cedar Flat's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cedar Flat's 138-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cedar Flat
Each reading below is measured for Cedar Flat itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCedar Flat runs about 138 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCedar Flat sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Cedar Flat is in
Cedar Flat sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Cedar Flat's own centroid rather than borrowed from Placer County.
What Grows in Cedar Flat
Every plant below cleared Cedar Flat's own zone 7a and its 138-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cedar Flat?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Cedar Flat
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cedar Flat. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHELL SERVICE STATION 135394Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- SIERRA BOAT COBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- JONES CORDA CONSTRUCTION INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SHELL STATION WIC 204-7686-0307Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- NORTH TAHOE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- NORTH TAHOE FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- 016N017E32C001MNitrate · 1.4 mi
- PACIFIC BELL TELEPHONE CO DBA AT&T CALIFBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- URBAN TREE MANAGEMENT DBA JEREMIAH'S TREE SERVICEBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- LAKE FOREST SHOP LLCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- TAHOE CITY AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- TAHOE MARINE & EXCAVATINGBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cedar Flat'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 Cedar Flat.
Total Sites
341
within ~10 miles of Cedar Flat
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cedar Flat
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cedar Flat
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cedar Flat, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cedar Flat — PFAS (4 sites) and Brownfields (195 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Cedar Flat
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 Cedar Flat average
Your land is one point inside Cedar Flat
Everything above resolves to Cedar Flat as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 691 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 Cedar Flat Average
Cedar Flat Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cedar Flat
- ●One soil character for all of Cedar Flat
- ●Frost dates read at Cedar Flat's scale: May 25 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cedar Flat's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cedar Flat
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cedar Flat, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cedar Flat averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cedar Flat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cedar Flat average
How we know this about Cedar Flat
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 Cedar Flat’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 Cedar Flat
When does frost risk typically end in Cedar Flat?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Flat typically lands around May 25, 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 Jun 15.
When is the first frost in Cedar Flat?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Flat typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 138 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cedar Flat?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cedar Flat sees about 138 frost-free days — roughly May 25 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 15 to Sep 26, about 103 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cedar Flat?
The federal record around Cedar Flat is a meaningful one — 341 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (195), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 gardeners stretch the season in Cedar Flat?
With about 138 frost-free days between hard freezes, Cedar Flat rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 166 to 194 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 25 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Cedar Flat's scale — its 7a band and its 138-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cedar Flat'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 Cedar Flat’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cedar Flat's own scale — its own ~138-day season between 28°F freezes, the 691 acres it covers and 341 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cedar Flat's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cedar Flat's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 25 and Oct 10 and the ~138-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 341 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cedar Flat, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cedar Flat's boundary and the 691 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~138-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cedar Flat's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cedar Flat's 691 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Placer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Placer 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 Placer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cedar Flat's 691 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cedar Flat you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 691 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Cedar Flat-wide figureread your own land →