Dorrington, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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 cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dorrington, 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 Dorrington 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 Dorrington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dorrington — the short answer
Dorrington, California: USDA zone 8a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 8a is Dorrington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dorrington's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dorrington
Each reading below is measured for Dorrington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDorrington runs about 217 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredDorrington sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Dorrington is in
Dorrington sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Dorrington's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Calaveras County is mostly Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dorrington
Every plant below cleared Dorrington's own zone 8a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dorrington?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Dorrington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dorrington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JERRY & SUKI EAVESBrownfields · 800 ft
- MARIA VANWAMBEKEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS CALAVERAS BIG TREES SPBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- Cuds Chrome ClaimMining · 4.3 mi
- S C LINEBAUGHBrownfields · 5.3 mi
- CALIFORNIA WASTE RECOVERY SYSTEMS LLCBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY AND FIRE PROTECTION/SKULL CREEK FFSBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- Reported OccurrenceMining · 5.4 mi
- CALAVERAS COUNTY DPWBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS ROAD MAINTENANCE YARDBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- HAHNS CHAINSAWS UNLIMITEDBrownfields · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dorrington'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 Dorrington.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dorrington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dorrington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dorrington — Mining (4 sites) and Brownfields (24 sites). 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.
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 Dorrington
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 Dorrington average
Your land is one point inside Dorrington
Everything above resolves to Dorrington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Dorrington Average
Dorrington Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Dorrington
- ●One soil character for all of Dorrington
- ●Frost dates read at Dorrington's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dorrington's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dorrington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dorrington, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dorrington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dorrington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dorrington average
How we know this about Dorrington
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 Dorrington’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 Dorrington
When does frost risk typically end in Dorrington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dorrington typically lands around Apr 15, 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 May 6.
When is the first frost in Dorrington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dorrington typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dorrington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dorrington sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Nov 4, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dorrington?
The federal record around Dorrington shows 33 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (24), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dorrington?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dorrington's scale — its 8a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dorrington'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 Dorrington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dorrington's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,598 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dorrington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dorrington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 18 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dorrington, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dorrington's boundary and the 2,598 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dorrington sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dorrington's 2,598 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calaveras County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calaveras 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 Calaveras County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dorrington's 2,598 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dorrington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,598 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 Dorrington-wide figureread your own land →