Diamond Springs, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Diamond Springs, 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 Diamond Springs 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 Diamond Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Diamond Springs — the short answer
Diamond Springs, California: USDA zone 9b, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 El Dorado County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Diamond Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Diamond Springs's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Diamond Springs
Each reading below is measured for Diamond Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDiamond Springs runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from El Dorado County, the closest normal to Diamond Springs) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDiamond Springs 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 Diamond Springs is in
Diamond Springs sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Diamond Springs's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: El Dorado County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Diamond Springs
Plants matched to Diamond Springs's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Diamond Springs?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Diamond Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Diamond Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STROUD, LAURELBrownfields · 850 ft
- A&B APPLIANCEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- RUXCO ENGINEERING INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- PERFORMANCE CYCLEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- AMERAL'S TRUCK & SCRAP METALS AUTO WRECKBrownfields · 1700 ft
- HFW ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 1700 ft
- SIERRA TOOL & CUTTER COBrownfields · 2100 ft
- ROBINSON'S AUTOMOTIVE INC DBA ROBINSON'S AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- MAVERICK INSULATION, INC.Brownfields · 2200 ft
- ROBINSON'S AUTOMOTIVE INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- COOK CUSTOM CABINETRY INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- COMCAST CORP.Brownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Diamond Springs'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 Diamond Springs.
Total Sites
554
within ~10 miles of Diamond Springs
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Diamond Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Diamond Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Diamond Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Diamond Springs — Mining (71 sites) and Brownfields (401 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Diamond Springs
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 Diamond Springs average
Your land is one point inside Diamond Springs
Everything above resolves to Diamond Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 11K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from El Dorado 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 Diamond Springs Average
Diamond Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Diamond Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Diamond Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Diamond Springs's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Diamond Springs's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Diamond Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Diamond Springs, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Diamond Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Diamond Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Diamond Springs average
How we know this about Diamond Springs
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 El Dorado 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 Diamond Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Diamond Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Diamond Springs typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Diamond Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Diamond Springs typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Diamond Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Diamond Springs sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 15, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Diamond Springs?
The federal record around Diamond Springs runs heavier than most — 554 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (401), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Diamond Springs?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Diamond Springs's scale — its 9b band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Diamond Springs'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 Diamond Springs’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Diamond Springs's own scale — the 10,650 acres it covers and 554 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Diamond Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 554 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Diamond Springs, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Diamond Springs's boundary and the 10,650 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Diamond Springs 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
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Diamond Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom El Dorado County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Diamond Springs's 10,650 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Dorado County
- The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom El Dorado 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 El Dorado County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Diamond Springs's 10,650 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Diamond Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,650 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 Diamond Springs-wide figureread your own land →