Day Valley, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Day Valley, 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 Day Valley 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 Day Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Day Valley — the short answer
Day Valley, California: USDA zone 9b, about 333 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 17
- Santa Cruz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 16
- Santa Cruz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~333
- Santa Cruz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 12K 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 Santa Cruz County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Day Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Day Valley's 333-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Day Valley
Each reading below is measured for Day Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDay Valley runs about 333 days between hard freezes (read from Santa Cruz County, the closest normal to Day Valley) — 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
MeasuredDay Valley 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 Day Valley is in
Day Valley sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Day Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Cruz County.
What Grows in Day Valley
Every plant below cleared Day Valley's own zone 9b and its 333-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Day Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Day Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Day Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 010S001E28L001MNitrate · 0.8 mi
- TROUT GULCH MUTUAL WATER COMPANYPFAS · 1.8 mi
- CABRILLO COLLEGEPFAS · 1.8 mi
- 011S001E10B001MNitrate · 2.2 mi
- 010S001E36N001MNitrate · 2.3 mi
- APTOS LANDSCAPE SUPPLY INCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- COASTWIDE ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES INCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- 011S001E01B001MNitrate · 2.9 mi
- BRAD COTTELBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- PAJARO VALLEY USD-APTOS HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- BOYD HERRENBrownfields · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Day Valley'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 Day Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Day Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Day Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Day Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Day Valley — Brownfields (835 sites) and PFAS (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Day Valley
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 Day Valley average
Your land is one point inside Day Valley
Everything above resolves to Day Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 12K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Santa Cruz County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Day Valley Average
Day Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Day Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Day Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Day Valley's scale: Jan 17 to Dec 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Day Valley's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Day Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Day Valley, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Day Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Day Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Day Valley average
How we know this about Day Valley
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 Santa Cruz 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 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 Day Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Day Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Day Valley typically lands around Jan 17, 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 Feb 7.
When is the first frost in Day Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Day Valley typically arrives around Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 2, so the watching starts about Nov 16 — about 333 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Day Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Day Valley sees about 333 frost-free days — roughly Jan 17 through Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 7 to Dec 2, about 298 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Day Valley?
The federal record around Day Valley runs heavier than most — 1,038 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (835), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles 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 Day Valley?
From about Nov 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Day Valley's scale — its 9b band and its 333-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Day Valley'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 Day Valley’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Day Valley's own scale — the 11,842 acres it covers and 1,038 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Day Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,038 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Day Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Day Valley's boundary and the 11,842 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~333-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Day Valley's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Day Valley has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Santa Cruz County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Day Valley's 11,842 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Cruz County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Cruz 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 Santa Cruz County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Day Valley's 11,842 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Day Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,842 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Day Valley-wide figureread your own land →