Coffee Creek, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Coffee Creek, 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 Coffee Creek 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 Coffee Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coffee Creek — the short answer
Coffee Creek, California: USDA zone 8b, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 8b is Coffee Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coffee Creek's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coffee Creek
Each reading below is measured for Coffee Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoffee Creek runs about 245 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredCoffee Creek sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Coffee Creek is in
Coffee Creek sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Coffee Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Trinity County.
What Grows in Coffee Creek
Every plant below cleared Coffee Creek's own zone 8b and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coffee Creek?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Coffee Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coffee Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Crown PointMining · 0.9 mi
- 037N007W05P001MNitrate · 0.9 mi
- Eureka GroupMining · 1.0 mi
- New Blue Jay Mining Co.Mining · 1.3 mi
- Le BlancMining · 1.3 mi
- HeadlightMining · 1.8 mi
- CinderellaMining · 1.9 mi
- Copper QueenMining · 2.1 mi
- Headlight ConsolidatedMining · 2.1 mi
- Copper CreekMining · 2.3 mi
- Rainbow No. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4Mining · 2.3 mi
- DeweyMining · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coffee Creek'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 Coffee Creek.
Total Sites
56
within ~10 miles of Coffee Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coffee Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coffee Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coffee Creek, Mining runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Coffee Creek. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Coffee Creek
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 Coffee Creek average
Your land is one point inside Coffee Creek
Everything above resolves to Coffee Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Coffee Creek Average
Coffee Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Coffee Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Coffee Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Coffee Creek's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coffee Creek's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coffee Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coffee Creek, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coffee Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coffee Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coffee Creek average
How we know this about Coffee Creek
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 Coffee Creek’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 Coffee Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Coffee Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coffee Creek 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 Coffee Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coffee Creek typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coffee Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coffee Creek sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 6, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coffee Creek?
The federal record around Coffee Creek is a meaningful one — 56 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (50), the nearest Mining record about 0.9 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 Coffee Creek?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coffee Creek's scale — its 8b band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coffee Creek'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 Coffee Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Coffee Creek's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,372 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coffee Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coffee Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 20 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coffee Creek, the closest Mining record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coffee Creek's boundary and the 7,372 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coffee Creek's own centroid, the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Coffee Creek's 7,372 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Trinity County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Trinity 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 Trinity County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coffee Creek's 7,372 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coffee Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,372 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.9 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 Coffee Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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