Darwin, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Darwin, 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 Darwin 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 Darwin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Darwin — the short answer
Darwin, California: USDA zone 8b, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 861 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 861 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 Darwin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Darwin's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Darwin
Each reading below is measured for Darwin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDarwin runs about 263 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
MeasuredDarwin 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 Darwin is in
Darwin sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Darwin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Inyo County.
What Grows in Darwin
Every plant below cleared Darwin's own zone 8b and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Darwin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Darwin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Darwin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CosoMining · 150 ft
- Panamint Springs ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CusterMining · 1400 ft
- Darwin & Other MinesMining · 1600 ft
- Rio Tinto ConsolidatedMining · 1700 ft
- Giroux MineMining · 1800 ft
- Richardson GroupMining · 1900 ft
- RichardsonMining · 0.6 mi
- KingmanMining · 0.6 mi
- Darwin MinesMining · 0.6 mi
- SusquehannaMining · 0.7 mi
- Darwin MineMining · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Darwin'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 Darwin.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Darwin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Darwin, Mining runs higher than the national average — 98 sites within ~10 miles of Darwin. 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 Darwin
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 Darwin average
Your land is one point inside Darwin
Everything above resolves to Darwin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 861 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 Darwin Average
Darwin Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Darwin
- ●One soil character for all of Darwin
- ●Frost dates read at Darwin's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Darwin's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Darwin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Darwin, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Darwin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Darwin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Darwin average
How we know this about Darwin
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 Darwin’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 Darwin
When does frost risk typically end in Darwin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Darwin typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Darwin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Darwin typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Darwin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Darwin sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 16, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Darwin?
The federal record around Darwin runs heavier than most — 99 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (98), the nearest Mining 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 Darwin?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Darwin's scale — its 8b band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Darwin'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 Darwin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Darwin's own scale — its own ~263-day season between 28°F freezes, the 861 acres it covers and 99 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Darwin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Darwin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 30 and the ~263-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 99 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Darwin, the closest Mining record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Darwin's boundary and the 861 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Darwin's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Darwin's 861 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Inyo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Inyo 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 Inyo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Darwin's 861 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Darwin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 861 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining 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 Darwin-wide figureread your own land →
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