Elizabeth Lake, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elizabeth Lake, 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 Elizabeth Lake 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 Elizabeth Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elizabeth Lake — the short answer
Elizabeth Lake, California: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Elizabeth Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elizabeth Lake's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elizabeth Lake
Each reading below is measured for Elizabeth Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElizabeth Lake runs about 304 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
MeasuredElizabeth Lake 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 Elizabeth Lake is in
Elizabeth Lake sits in the Southern California Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Elizabeth Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Los Angeles County is mostly Southern California/Northern Baja Coast. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Elizabeth Lake
Every plant below cleared Elizabeth Lake's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elizabeth Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Elizabeth Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elizabeth Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 007N014W32A007SNitrate · 1000 ft
- 007N014W29P002SNitrate · 0.6 mi
- 007N014W29P001SNitrate · 0.6 mi
- 007N014W29L001SNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 007N014W29M001SNitrate · 0.9 mi
- 007N014W29M002SNitrate · 0.9 mi
- 007N014W29N001SNitrate · 0.9 mi
- 007N014W30R001SNitrate · 1.0 mi
- Unnamed Mercury OccurrenceMining · 1.1 mi
- 007N014W30K002SNitrate · 1.2 mi
- 007N014W30K001SNitrate · 1.4 mi
- 007N014W30K003SNitrate · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elizabeth Lake'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 Elizabeth Lake.
Total Sites
275
within ~10 miles of Elizabeth Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elizabeth Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elizabeth Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elizabeth Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elizabeth Lake — PFAS (5 sites) and Nitrate (140 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Elizabeth Lake
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 Elizabeth Lake average
Your land is one point inside Elizabeth Lake
Everything above resolves to Elizabeth Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Elizabeth Lake Average
Elizabeth Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Elizabeth Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Elizabeth Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Elizabeth Lake's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elizabeth Lake's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elizabeth Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elizabeth Lake, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elizabeth Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elizabeth Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elizabeth Lake average
How we know this about Elizabeth Lake
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 Elizabeth Lake’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 Elizabeth Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Elizabeth Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elizabeth Lake typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 4.
When is the first frost in Elizabeth Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elizabeth Lake typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elizabeth Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elizabeth Lake sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 28, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elizabeth Lake?
The federal record around Elizabeth Lake is a meaningful one — 275 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (140), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Elizabeth Lake?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elizabeth Lake's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elizabeth Lake'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 Elizabeth Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elizabeth Lake's own scale — its own ~304-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,970 acres it covers and 275 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elizabeth Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elizabeth Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 11 and Dec 12 and the ~304-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 275 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elizabeth Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elizabeth Lake's boundary and the 3,970 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Elizabeth Lake sits in the Southern California Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elizabeth Lake's 3,970 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Los Angeles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elizabeth Lake's 3,970 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elizabeth Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,970 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Elizabeth Lake-wide figureread your own land →