Crowley Lake, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Crowley Lake, 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 Crowley Lake 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 Crowley Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crowley Lake — the short answer
Crowley Lake, California: USDA zone 6a, about 132 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~132
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6a is Crowley Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crowley Lake's 132-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crowley Lake
Each reading below is measured for Crowley Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrowley Lake runs about 132 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCrowley Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Crowley Lake is in
Crowley Lake sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Crowley Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mono County.
What Grows in Crowley Lake
Every plant below cleared Crowley Lake's own zone 6a and its 132-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crowley Lake?
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 Apr 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Crowley Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crowley Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Crowley Lake General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LONG VALLEY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICTBrownfields · 1800 ft
- MAMMOTH CWDPFAS · 5.3 mi
- MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN SKI AREA - OUTPOST 14PFAS · 5.3 mi
- CONVICT LAKE RESORT INCBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- HOT CREEK AVIATION LLCBrownfields · 6.8 mi
- 005S030E24C001MNitrate · 7.5 mi
- 004S028E03J003MNitrate · 7.8 mi
- CALTRANS DISTRICT 09Brownfields · 8.1 mi
- Laurel Creek Tungsten No. 1Mining · 8.2 mi
- Luckly Strike ProspectMining · 8.8 mi
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 8.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crowley Lake'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 Crowley Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crowley Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crowley Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Crowley Lake
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 Crowley Lake average
Your land is one point inside Crowley Lake
Everything above resolves to Crowley Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Crowley Lake Average
Crowley Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Crowley Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Crowley Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Crowley Lake's scale: May 24 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crowley Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crowley Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crowley Lake, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crowley Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crowley Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crowley Lake average
How we know this about Crowley Lake
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 Crowley Lake’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 Crowley Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Crowley Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crowley Lake typically lands around May 24, 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 Jun 14.
When is the first frost in Crowley Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crowley Lake typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 132 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crowley Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crowley Lake sees about 132 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 19, about 97 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crowley Lake?
The federal record around Crowley Lake is a meaningful one — 24 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 gardeners stretch the season in Crowley Lake?
With about 132 frost-free days between hard freezes, Crowley Lake rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 160 to 188 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 24 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Crowley Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 132-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crowley Lake'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 Crowley Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crowley Lake's own scale — its own ~132-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,847 acres it covers and 24 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crowley Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crowley Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 24 and Oct 3 and the ~132-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 24 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crowley Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crowley Lake's boundary and the 1,847 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~132-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crowley Lake's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crowley Lake's 1,847 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mono County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mono 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 Mono County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crowley Lake's 1,847 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crowley Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,847 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Crowley Lake-wide figureread your own land →