Edwards AFB, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Edwards AFB, 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 Edwards AFB 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 Edwards AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Edwards AFB — the short answer
Edwards AFB, California: USDA zone 8b, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 Edwards AFB's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Edwards AFB's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Edwards AFB
Each reading below is measured for Edwards AFB itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEdwards AFB runs about 260 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
MeasuredEdwards AFB 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 Edwards AFB is in
Edwards AFB sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Edwards AFB's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Kern County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Edwards AFB
Every plant below cleared Edwards AFB's own zone 8b and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Edwards AFB?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 Edwards AFB
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Edwards AFB. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FIRESTONE COMPLETE AUTO CARE # 67P5Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- GENUINE PARTS CO DBA NAPA AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMIN EDW TRACOBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- DESERT HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- 009N010W16C002SNitrate · 2.3 mi
- 009N010W16R004SNitrate · 2.4 mi
- 009N010W16R002SNitrate · 2.5 mi
- 009N010W16R003SNitrate · 2.5 mi
- 009N010W16R001SNitrate · 2.5 mi
- 009N010W08P001SNitrate · 2.6 mi
- 009N010W12R001SNitrate · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Edwards AFB'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 Edwards AFB.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Edwards AFB
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Edwards AFB
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Edwards AFB, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 128 sites within ~10 miles of Edwards AFB. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Edwards AFB
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 Edwards AFB average
Your land is one point inside Edwards AFB
Everything above resolves to Edwards AFB as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Edwards AFB Average
Edwards AFB Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Edwards AFB
- ●One soil character for all of Edwards AFB
- ●Frost dates read at Edwards AFB's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Edwards AFB's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Edwards AFB
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Edwards AFB, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Edwards AFB averages can't show:
We read public map data around Edwards AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Edwards AFB average
How we know this about Edwards AFB
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 Edwards AFB’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 Edwards AFB
When does frost risk typically end in Edwards AFB?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Edwards AFB typically lands around Mar 2, 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 Mar 23.
When is the first frost in Edwards AFB?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Edwards AFB typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Edwards AFB?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Edwards AFB sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 3, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Edwards AFB?
The federal record around Edwards AFB is a meaningful one — 148 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (128), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Edwards AFB?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Edwards AFB's scale — its 8b band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Edwards AFB'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 Edwards AFB’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Edwards AFB's own scale — its own ~260-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,966 acres it covers and 148 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Edwards AFB's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Edwards AFB's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 2 and Nov 17 and the ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 148 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Edwards AFB, the closest Brownfields record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Edwards AFB's boundary and the 10,966 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Edwards AFB sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Edwards AFB's 10,966 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kern County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kern 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 Kern County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Edwards AFB's 10,966 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Edwards AFB you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,966 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.2 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 Edwards AFB-wide figureread your own land →