Coulterville, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Coulterville, 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 Coulterville 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 Coulterville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coulterville — the short answer
Coulterville, California: USDA zone 9a, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 249 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 249 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 9a is Coulterville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coulterville's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coulterville
Each reading below is measured for Coulterville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoulterville runs about 300 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredCoulterville 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 Coulterville is in
Coulterville sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Coulterville'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 Coulterville
Every plant below cleared Coulterville's own zone 9a and its 300-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coulterville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Coulterville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coulterville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 350 ft
- SOLAMBO MINESuperfund · 450 ft
- CAL TRANSBrownfields · 900 ft
- BalanceMining · 2400 ft
- CDF COULTERVILLE FIRE STATIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MalvinaMining · 1.1 mi
- TyroMining · 1.4 mi
- Mary Harrison-Malvina GroupMining · 1.4 mi
- Reed PropertyMining · 1.5 mi
- Champion IMining · 1.6 mi
- ChateauMining · 1.8 mi
- Willow Creek MercuryMining · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coulterville'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 Coulterville.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Coulterville
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coulterville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coulterville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coulterville, Mining runs higher than the national average — 71 sites within ~10 miles of Coulterville. 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 Coulterville
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 Coulterville average
Your land is one point inside Coulterville
Everything above resolves to Coulterville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 249 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 Coulterville Average
Coulterville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Coulterville
- ●One soil character for all of Coulterville
- ●Frost dates read at Coulterville's scale: Feb 8 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coulterville's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coulterville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coulterville, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coulterville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coulterville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coulterville average
How we know this about Coulterville
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 Coulterville’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 Coulterville
When does frost risk typically end in Coulterville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coulterville typically lands around Feb 8, 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 Mar 1.
When is the first frost in Coulterville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coulterville typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coulterville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coulterville sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 8 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 1 to Nov 21, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coulterville?
The federal record around Coulterville runs heavier than most — 109 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (71), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Coulterville?
From about Nov 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coulterville's scale — its 9a band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coulterville'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 Coulterville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Coulterville's own scale — its own ~300-day season between 28°F freezes, the 249 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coulterville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coulterville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 8 and Dec 5 and the ~300-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coulterville, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coulterville's boundary and the 249 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~300-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Coulterville 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
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Coulterville's 249 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mariposa County
- 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 Coulterville's 249 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coulterville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 249 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Coulterville-wide figureread your own land →