Dutch Flat, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Dutch Flat, 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 Dutch Flat 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 Dutch Flat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dutch Flat — the short answer
Dutch Flat, California: USDA zone 9a, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 380 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 380 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 9a is Dutch Flat's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dutch Flat's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dutch Flat
Each reading below is measured for Dutch Flat itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDutch Flat runs about 267 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
MeasuredDutch Flat sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Dutch Flat is in
Dutch Flat sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Dutch Flat's own centroid rather than borrowed from Placer County.
What Grows in Dutch Flat
Every plant below cleared Dutch Flat's own zone 9a and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dutch Flat?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Dutch Flat
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dutch Flat. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- POLAR STAR MINESuperfund · 500 ft
- Dutch Flat DistrictMining · 1400 ft
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Big BlueMining · 0.7 mi
- 016N010E36E001MNitrate · 1.2 mi
- PG&E ALTA SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL #221 GOLD RUNBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Sierra Energy #13Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #42032Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- Hodge RanchMining · 1.9 mi
- Hodge Ranch OccurrenceMining · 1.9 mi
- 015N010E01C001MNitrate · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dutch Flat'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 Dutch Flat.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dutch Flat
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dutch Flat
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dutch Flat, Mining runs higher than the national average — 206 sites within ~10 miles of Dutch Flat. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Dutch Flat
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 Dutch Flat average
Your land is one point inside Dutch Flat
Everything above resolves to Dutch Flat as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 380 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 Dutch Flat Average
Dutch Flat Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Dutch Flat
- ●One soil character for all of Dutch Flat
- ●Frost dates read at Dutch Flat's scale: Mar 11 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dutch Flat's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dutch Flat
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dutch Flat, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dutch Flat averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dutch Flat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dutch Flat average
How we know this about Dutch Flat
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 Dutch Flat’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 Dutch Flat
When does frost risk typically end in Dutch Flat?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dutch Flat typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Dutch Flat?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dutch Flat typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dutch Flat?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dutch Flat sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 19, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dutch Flat?
The federal record around Dutch Flat runs heavier than most — 342 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (206), the nearest Superfund 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 Dutch Flat?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dutch Flat's scale — its 9a band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dutch Flat'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 Dutch Flat’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dutch Flat's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 380 acres it covers and 342 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dutch Flat's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dutch Flat's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Dec 3 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 342 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dutch Flat, the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dutch Flat's boundary and the 380 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dutch Flat's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dutch Flat's 380 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Placer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Placer 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 Placer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dutch Flat's 380 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dutch Flat you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 380 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Dutch Flat-wide figureread your own land →
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