Cherokee, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cherokee, 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 Cherokee 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 Cherokee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cherokee — the short answer
Cherokee, California: USDA zone 9b, about 332 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~332
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Butte County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Cherokee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cherokee's 332-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cherokee
Each reading below is measured for Cherokee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCherokee runs about 332 days between hard freezes (read from Butte County, the closest normal to Cherokee) — 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
MeasuredCherokee 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 Cherokee is in
Cherokee sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Cherokee's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Butte County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cherokee
Every plant below cleared Cherokee's own zone 9b and its 332-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cherokee?
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 Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — 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 Cherokee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cherokee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 021N004E30A001MNitrate · 1.5 mi
- VALLEY SILICA DBA VALLEY SAND AND ROCK INCBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- BCJ SAND AND ROCK, INC.Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- Bloomer HillMining · 2.5 mi
- OROVILLE LAKE MARINAS LLC DBA LIME SADDLE MARINABrownfields · 2.5 mi
- Rock River PropertyMining · 2.9 mi
- Parks Ranch MineMining · 3.2 mi
- Park's Ranch MineMining · 3.3 mi
- J. G. Curtis Property Parke's Ranch MineMining · 3.4 mi
- ParksMining · 3.4 mi
- Green Ridge ClaimMining · 3.8 mi
- Taylor PropertyMining · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cherokee'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 Cherokee.
Total Sites
385
within ~10 miles of Cherokee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cherokee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cherokee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cherokee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cherokee — Mining (46 sites) and Brownfields (275 sites). 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Cherokee
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 Cherokee average
Your land is one point inside Cherokee
Everything above resolves to Cherokee as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Butte 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 Cherokee Average
Cherokee Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Cherokee
- ●One soil character for all of Cherokee
- ●Frost dates read at Cherokee's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cherokee's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cherokee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cherokee, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cherokee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cherokee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cherokee average
How we know this about Cherokee
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 Butte 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 Cherokee
When does frost risk typically end in Cherokee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cherokee typically lands around Jan 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Cherokee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cherokee typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 332 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cherokee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cherokee sees about 332 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 3, about 297 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cherokee?
The federal record around Cherokee is a meaningful one — 385 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (275), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.5 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 Cherokee?
From about Nov 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cherokee's scale — its 9b band and its 332-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cherokee'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 Cherokee’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cherokee's own scale — the 1,121 acres it covers and 385 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cherokee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 385 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cherokee, the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cherokee's boundary and the 1,121 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~332-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cherokee 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 — Cherokee has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Butte County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cherokee's 1,121 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butte 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 Butte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cherokee's 1,121 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cherokee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,121 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 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 Cherokee-wide figureread your own land →
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