Cloverdale, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cloverdale, 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 Cloverdale 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 Cloverdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cloverdale — the short answer
Cloverdale, California: USDA zone 9b, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 23
- Sonoma County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Sonoma County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~323
- Sonoma County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Sonoma County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Cloverdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cloverdale's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cloverdale
Each reading below is measured for Cloverdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCloverdale runs about 323 days between hard freezes (read from Sonoma County, the closest normal to Cloverdale) — 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
MeasuredCloverdale 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 Cloverdale is in
Cloverdale sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Cloverdale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sonoma County.
What Grows in Cloverdale
Every plant below cleared Cloverdale's own zone 9b and its 323-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cloverdale?
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 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Cloverdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cloverdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cloverdale Patriot GasolineUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MSB ENTERPRISES LLC DBA PATRIOTBrownfields · 950 ft
- ERIC'S PERFORMANCE TRANSMISSION & AUTOBrownfields · 1400 ft
- NORTH COUNTY AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- SONOMA COUNTY WASTE MANAGEMENT AGENCYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #16271Brownfields · 1600 ft
- CLOVERDALE FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICTBrownfields · 1700 ft
- FAST N EASY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FAST GAS & MINI MART CLOVERDALEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- ISAIAS HOLGUIN TRUCKINGBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 2500 ft
- ANDREA TACVORIANBrownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cloverdale'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 Cloverdale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cloverdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cloverdale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cloverdale, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cloverdale — Mining (41 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Cloverdale
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 Cloverdale average
Your land is one point inside Cloverdale
Everything above resolves to Cloverdale as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sonoma County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Cloverdale Average
Cloverdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Cloverdale
- ●One soil character for all of Cloverdale
- ●Frost dates read at Cloverdale's scale: Jan 23 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cloverdale's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cloverdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cloverdale, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cloverdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cloverdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cloverdale average
How we know this about Cloverdale
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Sonoma 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Cloverdale
When does frost risk typically end in Cloverdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cloverdale typically lands around Jan 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Cloverdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cloverdale typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 323 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cloverdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cloverdale sees about 323 frost-free days — roughly Jan 23 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 13 to Nov 28, about 288 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cloverdale?
The federal record around Cloverdale runs heavier than most — 165 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cloverdale?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cloverdale's scale — its 9b band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cloverdale'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 Cloverdale’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cloverdale's own scale — the 2,152 acres it covers and 165 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cloverdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 165 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cloverdale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cloverdale's boundary and the 2,152 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~323-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cloverdale's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cloverdale has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sonoma County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cloverdale's 2,152 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sonoma County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sonoma 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 Sonoma County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cloverdale's 2,152 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cloverdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,152 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cloverdale-wide figureread your own land →
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