Crescent City, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Crescent City, 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 Crescent City 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 Crescent City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crescent City — the short answer
Crescent City, California: USDA zone 9b, about 293 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Del Norte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Del Norte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~293
- Del Norte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Del Norte County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Crescent City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crescent City's 293-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crescent City
Each reading below is measured for Crescent City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCrescent City runs about 293 days between hard freezes (read from Del Norte County, the closest normal to Crescent City) — 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
MeasuredCrescent City 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 Crescent City is in
Crescent City sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Crescent City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Del Norte County is mostly Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Crescent City
Every plant below cleared Crescent City's own zone 9b and its 293-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crescent City?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Crescent City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crescent City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEORGE PETTY INC DBA GEORGE'S AUTO DIESEL ELECTBrownfields · 850 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 3140Brownfields · 850 ft
- DOLLAR TREE #01990Brownfields · 850 ft
- HARBOR FREIGHT TOOLS USA #3159Brownfields · 900 ft
- PACIFIC POWER - CRESCENT CITY SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1000 ft
- CAL TRANS CRESCENT CITY MSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- HOME DEPOT STORE #8524Brownfields · 1200 ft
- Humboldt Petroleum Inc. (#3)Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CRESCENT CITY SHELLBrownfields · 1200 ft
- DEL NORTE COUNTY ROAD DEPTBrownfields · 1300 ft
- T G MANUFACTURING INC DBA TWO GUYSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CIRCLE K STORE #1118Brownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crescent City'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 Crescent City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crescent City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crescent City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crescent City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Crescent City — Superfund (4 sites) and Brownfields (76 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Crescent City
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 Crescent City average
Your land is one point inside Crescent City
Everything above resolves to Crescent City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Del Norte 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 Crescent City Average
Crescent City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Crescent City
- ●One soil character for all of Crescent City
- ●Frost dates read at Crescent City's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crescent City's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crescent City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crescent City, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crescent City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crescent City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crescent City average
How we know this about Crescent City
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 Del Norte 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 Crescent City
When does frost risk typically end in Crescent City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crescent City typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Crescent City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crescent City typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 293 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crescent City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crescent City sees about 293 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 22, about 258 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crescent City?
The federal record around Crescent City is a meaningful one — 102 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (76), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Crescent City?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crescent City's scale — its 9b band and its 293-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crescent City'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 Crescent City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Crescent City's own scale — the 1,256 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crescent City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crescent City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crescent City's boundary and the 1,256 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~293-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Crescent City sits in the Coast Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Crescent City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Del Norte County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crescent City's 1,256 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Del Norte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Del Norte 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 Del Norte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crescent City's 1,256 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crescent City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,256 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Crescent City-wide figureread your own land →
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